Ierobs  of  The  I^eformation 


HEROES  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 


I. — Martin  Luther  (1483-1 546).  The  Hero 
OF  THE  Reformation.  By  Henry  Eyster 
Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
II. — Philip  MeIanchthon(i497-i56o).  The 
Protestant  Preceptor  of  Germany.  By 
James  William  Richard,  D.D. 

III. — Desiderius  Erasmus  (1467-1536).  The 
Humanist  in  the  Service  of  the  Re- 
formation.   By  Ephraim  Emerton,  Ph.D. 

IV.— Theodore  Beza  (15 19-1605).  The 
Counsellor  of  the  French  Reforma- 
tion.    By  Henry  Martyn  Baird,  Ph.D. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 


// 

IF^eroc^  of  tbe  IRctormatioii 


EDITED    l!V 

Samuel  /liacaulc?  Jacbeon 

PROFESSOR    OF   CHUKCH    HISTORY,    NEW    YORK 
UNIVERSITY 


AiaipeVci;  ;(apio-/AaT(i>»',  to  fie  avrb  nvevfia. 

DIVERSITIES  OF   GIFTS,    BUT   THE  SAME    SPIRIT. 


THEODORE   BEZA 


Heroes    of  The  Rcformotioio    Xs^'^^ 


Theodore  Beza 

THE   COUNSELLOR  OF 
THE    FRENCH    REFORMATION 

1519-1605 


BY 

y 

HENRY   MARTYN    BAIRD 

PROFESSOR   IN   NEW   YORK   UNIVERSITY 

AUTHOR   OF   "history   OF   THE    RISE   OF    THE    HUGUENOTS   OF   FRANCE,"  "  THE 

HUGUENOTS   AND    HENRY   OF   NAVARRE,"    AND    "  THE    HUGUENOTS   AND 

THE   REVOCATION    OF   THE    EDICT   OF   NANTES  " 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S    SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

^be  Iknicf^erbocker  press 

1899 


Copyright,  1S99 

BY 

HENRY  MARTYN  BAIRD 
Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 


Ubc  Iknfcherbocfcet  iprcse,  mew  iorft 


PREFACE 

IT  is  not  a  little  surprising  that  there  seems  to  be 
no  life  of  Theodore  Beza  accessible  to  the  gen- 
eral reader  either  in  English  or  in  French.  In  Ger- 
man there  is,  it  is  true,  a  satisfactory  biography  by 
Heppe,  written  for  the  series  of  the  "  Lives  and 
Select  Writings  of  the  Fathers  and  Founders  of  the 
Reformed  Church,"  edited  by  Hagenbach,  besides 
a  masterly  work  undertaken  by  that  eminent  scholar, 
J.  W.  Baum,  on  a  much  larger  scale,  but  unfor- 
tunately left  incomplete  at  his  death.  Both  bio- 
graphies, however,  were  published  many  years  ago, 
and  by  Baum  the  last  forty  years  of  the  activity  of 
Beza  are  not  touched  upon  at  all. 

Yet  of  the  heroes  of  the  Reformation  Theodore 
Beza  is  by  no  means  the  least  attractive.  Kis  course 
of  activity  was  long  and  brilliant.  He  presided  over 
the  Reformed  Church  in  the  French-speaking  coun- 
tries through  a  protracted  series  of  years,  its  recog- 
nised counsellor  and  leader  in  times  of  peril  both 
to  Church  and  to  State.  The  friend  of  Calvin,  he 
was  also  the  friend  and  adviser  of  Henry  IV.  until 
within  five  years  of  that  monarch's  end.  Thus  his 
permanent  influence  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 
Moreover,  his  career  was  rich  in  incidents  of  drama- 
tic   interest.      Certainly    no    more    impressive    and 


IV  Preface 

romantic  scene  can  be  found  in  the  history  of  the 
period  than  the  appearance  of  Beza  at  the  Colloquy 
of  Poissy,  when  for  the  first  time  Protestantism 
secured  a  hearing  before  the  King  and  royal  family, 
its  advocates  not  being  forced  upon  their  unwilling 
notice,  but,  on  the  contrary,  formally  invited  to  set 
forth  the  reasons  for  its  existence  and  for  its  separa- 
tion from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  history  of  Protestantism  in  France  could  not 
be  written  with  the  part  played  by  Beza  omitted. 
The  author  has  therefore  had  not  a  little  to  say  of 
him  in  his  History  of  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  and 
in  his  Hiigtieiiots  and  Henry  of  Navarre.^  But  the 
protagonist  in  the  drama  of  the  French  Reformation 
merits  separate  treatment,  and  a  thorough  know- 
ledge of  the  man  and  of  his  work  requires  a  develop- 
ment of  his  life  and  actions  that  could  find  no  place 
in  a  general  history. 

For  the  facts  I  have  gone  back  to  the  original 
sources,  most  of  all  to  Beza's  own  autobiographical 
notes  and  to  his  letters.  An  indefatigable  writer, 
Beza  has  left  us  a  great  mass  of  correspondence, 
much  of  it  of  historical  importance.  A  portion  of 
that  which  he  judged  to  be  of  most  permanent  value 
in  its  bearing  upon  theological  subjects  saw  the 
light  during  his  lifetime,  first  separately  and  after- 
wards in  his  collected  theological  works,  entitled 
Tractationes  TJieologicce.  I  shall  have  frequent  oc- 
casion to  draw  upon  these.  Of  his  correspondence 
more  strictly  historical  in  interest,  down  to  and  in- 
cluding  the    Colloquy    of  Poissy,    Professor  Baum 

'  New  York  :  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1879,  1SS6. 


Preface  v 

L^^athcrcd  a  hiri^c  store  in  the  clocuinentary  append- 
ices of  his  biograi)hy.  Professor  15aum  had  also, 
many  years  since,  copied  with  his  own  hands,  but 
not  utiHsed,  several  hundred  letters  still  preserved 
in  the  libraries  of  Geneva,  Zurich,  Basel,  etc.  These 
copies  have  recently  become  the  property  of  the 
French  Protestant  Historical  Society  and  been 
added  to  that  society's  rich  collections  in  Paris. 
Most  of  these  letters  have  never  been  published.  I 
have  been  able  to  secure  for  my  book  many  interest- 
ini^  facts  and  illustrations  derived  from  this  source. 

Besides  his  letters,  I  have  made  great  use  of  Beza's 
extended  treatises  contained  in  the  collection  already 
referred  to.  The  original  chronicles  and  memoirs 
of  the  time,  including  the  Histoire  Ecclesiastiqiie  des 
Egliscs  Reforviccs,  erroneously  attributed  to  Beza 
himself,  but  undoubtedly  composed  under  his  gen- 
eral supervision,  have  been  my  guide  throughout 
the  narrative.  For  the  titles  of  most  of  these  works 
I  refer  the  reader  to  the  appended  Bibliography. 

As  in  my  earlier  histories,  so  it  is  now  again  both 
a  duty  and  a  pleasure  to  express  my  gratitude  to 
Baron  Fernand  de  Schickler  and  Mr.  N.  Weiss, 
president  and  secretary  respectively  of  the  P'rench 
Protestant  Historical  Society,  for  many  acts  of 
kindness  and  for  valuable  help  in  my  later  re- 
searches. I  owe  to  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Ferdinand 
J.  Dreer,  of  Philadelphia,  the  facsimile  of  an  inter- 
esting letter  of  the  Reformer,  now  in  his  rare  col- 
lection of  manuscripts. 

New  York  University, 
September  15,  1899. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

D      J         JJV  PAGE 

CHILDHOOD    AND    YOUTH  .....  I 

Vezelay — Birth  —  Parentage —  Marie  Bourdelot — Child- 
hood in  Paris — Becomes  a  Pupil  of  Wolmar  at  Orleans 
and  Bourges — Fellow-Student  of  Calvin — Begins  Civil 
Law — Love  for  Classical  Literature — Success  in  Poetry — 
A  Licentiate  in  Law — Returns  to  Paris. 

CHAPTER  II 

1539-1548 

BEZA  IN  PARIS  .......  16 

Present  and"  Prospective  Revenues — Mental  Struggles — 
Repugnance  to  Practice  of  the  Law — Urgency  of  his 
Father — His  Studies — External  Quiet  and  Internal  Un- 
rest— Secret  Marriage  with  Claudine  Desnoz — First  Lit- 
erary Effort — The  Juvenilia — Not  Attacked  till  after 
Beza's  Conversion — His  Own  Regret — Etienne  Pasquier's 
Estimate — Imitation  of  Ovid  and  Catullus. 

CHAPTER  III 

I 548-1 5 50 
CONVERSION — CALL     TO     LAUSANNE — "  ABRAHAM'S 

sacrifice"  ......       32 

Illness — His  Own   Account  of  his  Conversion — Retires 
with  his  Wife  to  Geneva — First  Intention  to  Become  a 
Protestant  Printer — Jean  Crespin — Personal  Appearance 
vii 


viii  Contents 

PAGE 

— Kindly  Received  by  Calvin — Visits  Wolmar  at  Tubingen 
— Pierre  Viret — Annexation  of  the  Pays  de  Vaud  by 
Bern  (1536) — Establishment  of  Protestantism — Disputa- 
tion in  Cathedral  of  Lausanne  —  Caroli,  Farel,  and 
Blancherose — Iconoclasm — "  Academie  "  or  University — 
Beza  Called  to  Chair  of  Greek — Hesitancy  and  Acceptance 
— His  Second  Poetical  Work — Drama  of  AbrahanC s 
Sacrifice. 

CHAPTER  IV 

1554 
TREATISE  ON  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  HERETICS    .  .  52 

Execution  of  Michael  Servetus — Protest  Signed  "Martin 
Bellius  " — Ascribed  to  Sebastian  Chasteillon  or  Castalio — 
His  Scholarship — Beza  Maintains  that  Heretics  ought  to 
be  Punished  by  the  Civil  Magistrate — Even  Capitally — 
His  Arguments  from  Holy  Scripture. 

CHAPTER  V 

1549-1558 

BEZA'S  activity  at  LAUSANNE  .  .  .  -71 

Illness — The  "  Five  Scholars  of  Lausanne  " — Labours  for 
their  Release  (1552,  1553) — Beza's  Brother  and  his  Father 
Try  to  Bring  him  back  to  France  and  to  Roman  Catholic- 
ism— Providential  Leadings — Renewal  of  Alliance  be- 
tween Bern  and  Geneva — Persecution  of  Waldenses  by 
French  Parliament  of  Turin  (1556) — Beza  and  Farel  In- 
tercede with  Zurich,  Basel,  and  Schaffhausen  —  With 
German  Princes  —  Beza  Pleads  for  Christian  Union — 
Piedmont  Reverts  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy — Persecution  at 
Paris — Beza's  New  Intercession — His  Irenic  Exposition 
of  the  Reformed  Faith — Incurs  Danger  of  Alienating  Old 
Friends — Is  Defended  by  Calvin. 

CHAPTER  VI 

1558,  1559 

BECOMES   Calvin's   coadjutor — rector   of   the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  GENEVA  ....  96 

Why  Beza  Left  Lausanne — Pierre  Viret  Advocates  Stricter 
Discipline — Opposition    of    Bern — Beza's    Attitude — Re- 


Contents  ix 

PAGE 

moves  to  Geneva  (1558) — Calvin's  Plan  of  a  True  Uni- 
versity— Theological  School  with  Beza  as  Rector — Other 
Schools  Projected — Solemn  Opening  (1559) — The  Livre 
(ill  Ri'cteur — Calvin  and  Beza  Lecture  on  Alternate  Weeks 
— Self-Sacrifice — Subscription  to  Confession  of  Faith. 

CHAPTER  VII 

1560 

BEZA   AT  NERAC        .  .  .  .  .  .  .        IIO 

Assembly  of  Notables  at  Fontainebleau — Beza  Pressed  by 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Navarre  to  Come — Preaches  be- 
fore them — Manly  Advice — Infatuation  of  Antoine  of 
Bourbon  and  his  Brother — Perilous  Return  to  Geneva — 
Salutary  Influence  on  Jeanne  d'Albret — The  Eyes  of 
French  Protestants  Set  on  Beza, 

CHAPTER  VIII 
1561 

RECALL  TO  FRANCE I18 

Changes  since  Beza  Left  France — Bloody  Legislation  and 
Practice  under  Francis  I.  and  Henry  11. — Church  of 
Paris  Instituted  (1555)  —  Organisation  of  French  Re- 
formed Churches  (1559)  —  Tumult  of  Amboise  —  Rapid 
Progress  —  Cardinal  Odet  de  Chastillon  —  Worshij:)  in 
Suburbs  of  Paris  —  Protestant  Grandees  Absent  them- 
selves from  the  Coronation  of  Charles  IX. — Great  Public 
Assemblies — Papal  Nuncio  Disheartened — Protestants 
Promised  a  Hearing — Catharine  de'  Medici  Dissuaded  hy 
Venetian  Ambassador — Viewed  with  Suspicion — Justifies 
himself — Why  Calvin  is  not  Summoned — Theodore  Beza 
Invited  in  his  Place — Reluctantly  Accepts. 

CHAPTER  IX 

1561 

RECEPTION  AT  COURT       ......       I39 

Discouraging  News  at  his  Arrival  in  Paris — Summoned  to 
Saint  Germain  en  Laye — Attitude  of  Grandees — Preaches 
before  the  Princess  of  Conde — Presented  to  tlie  Queen- 
Mother — Litervicw  willi  Cardinal    Lorraine — The  Cartli- 


X  Contents 

PAGP 

nal  Professes  to  Acquiesce  in  Beza's  Doctrine  of  the 
Lord's  Supper — Catharine's  Delight — Madame  de  Cursol 
Sceptical — Calvin  not  Surprised  at  the  Cardinal's  Deceit — 
Reluctance  of  the  Prelates  to  Discuss — The  Queen- 
Mother's  Resoluteness. 

CHAPTER  X 
1561 
SPEECH  AT  THE  COLLOQUY  OF  POISSY  .  .  .       I53 

Protestants  hitherto  Denied  a  Hearing — Beza  and  the 
Delegates  Called  to  Poissy — Gathering  in  the  Nuns'  Re- 
fectory (September  9,  1561) — Charles  IX.  Presides — The 
Chancellor's  Speech — Vain  Attempt  of  Cardinal  Tournon 
to  Prevent  the  Conference — The  Protestants  Introduced, 
but  Left  Standing  behind  a  Bar — Beza's  Exordium — He 
Prays,  Using  the  Confession  of  Sins  of  Calvin's  Liturgy — 
Loyal  Professions — Points  of  Argument — Wherein  the 
Protestants  and  their  Opponents  Differ — The  Complete 
Satisfaction  of  Christ — Doctrine  of  Good  Works — Sufifi- 
ciency  of  Holy  Scripture — The  Sacraments — Both  Tran- 
substantiation  and  Consubstantiation  Repudiated — Only 
Two  Sacraments  Admitted — Structure  of  Church  Govern- 
ment Confused  beyond  Recognition — Peroration — Up- 
roar of  the  Prelates — "  He  has  Blasphemed  !  " — Cardinal 
Tournon  again  Appeals  to  the  King — His  Speech  Cut 
Short  by  the  Queen-Mother. 

CHAPTER  XI 

1561,  1562 

FURTHER    DISCUSSIONS THE    EDICT    OF  JANUARY 

MASSACRE  OF  VASSY 188 

Beza's  Plea  for  Protestantism. — Letter  to  Catharine  de' 
Medici — Second  Conference — Cardinal  Lorraine's  Reply 
— Change  in  the  P^orm  of  the  Colloquy — Conferences  at 
Saint  Germain — Abortive  Efforts  to  Frame  an  Article  on 
the  Ivord's  Supper — Beza  Detained  in  France  by  the 
Queen-Mother  and  Eminent  Protestants — "Edict  of 
January  "  Published — The  Protestants  Urged  to  Accept  it 
— Massacre  of  Vassy  P^petrated  by  the  Duke  of  Guise — 


Contents  xi 

I'AGE 

It  Leads  to  Civil  War — lieza's  Remonstrance — His  Words 
to  the  King  of  Navarre — The  Church  an  Anvil  that  has 
Worn  out  Many  Hammers. 

CHAPTER  XII 

1562,  1563 

COUNSELLOR    OF    CONDE    AND    THE    HUGUENOTS    IN 

THE  P'IRST  CIVIL  WAR  .  .  .  .  .        2IO 

Geneva  Extends  his  Leave  of  Absence — His  Popular 
Preaching — Varied  Duties — Reply  to  Jeanne  d'Albret — 
Prepares  a  Manifesto  for  the  Prince — Revisits  Geneva — 
Again  Permitted  to  Return  to  France — Present  at  the 
Battle  of  Dreux — P'alsely  Charged  with  Complicity  in  the 
Crime  of  Poltrot — Price  Set  on  his  Head  by  the  Regent  of 
the  Low  Countries. 

CHAPTER    XIII 
1563-1565 
BEZA  SUCCEEDS   CALVIN — EDITS  GREEK  NEW  TESTA- 
MENT ........       228 

Welcomed  by  the  Council  of  Geneva  and  by  Calvin — 
Calumny  of  Claude  de  Sainctes — Moderator  of  the  Vener- 
able Company — Calvin's  Death  (May  27,  1564) — Beza's 
Edition  of  the  Greek  New  Testament — "  Codex  Bezce." 

CHAPTER  XIV 
1566-1574 

iiROAD  SYMPATHY SYNOD  OF  LA  ROCHELLE MAS- 
SACRE OF  ST.  Bartholomew's  day  .  .  239 
New  Responsibilities — Wide  Sympathy — State  of  Eurojie 
— National  Synod  of  La  Rochelle  (1571)  —  Illustrious 
Members — Their  Adhesion  to  the  Confession  of  Faith — 
P.eza  Elected  Moderator — Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day  (August  24,  1572) — Fugitives  Reach  Geneva — Beza's 
Sermon  at  the  Public  Fast — Welcomes  Refugee  Pastors — 
His  Advice  Prized  by  Conde,  Henry  IV.,  and  the  French 
Churches — By  the  British  Protestants — Queen  Elizabeth's 
Aversion  to  Geneva — Views  of  Bishops  Jewe?l  and  Grindal 


xii  Contents 

PAGE 

— The  Dispute  about  Vestments  —  Attitude  of  Zurich 
Theologians — Beza's  Replies  to  tke  Bishops — Admiration 
for  Cartwright — Sympathy  for  the  Presbyterian  Move- 
ment. 

CHAPTER  XV 

CONTROVERSIES  AND  CONTROVERSIAL  WRITINGS  .  268 
Confession  of  the  Christian  Faith — Summary  of  the 
Whole  of  Christianity — Book  of  Christian  Questions 
and  Anszvers — Discussion  of  Predestination — Westphal 
and  Hesshus — Castalio  and  Ochino — Polygamy  and  Di- 
vorce— The  Discussion  regarding  the  Lord's  Supper — 
Claude   de   Sainctes  —  Attitude    toward    Lutheranism  — 

Andreoe. 

CHAPTER  XVI 

BEZA  AND  THE  HUGUENOT  PSALTER  .  .  .       287 

Not  Author  of  the  Huguenot  Liturgy — But  Joint  Author 
of  the  French  Psalms — Clement  Marot — Marot's  First 
Psalter— His  Collection  of  Fifty  Psalms  {1543)— The  Ad- 
dress "to  the  Ladies  of  France" — Marot  in  Geneva — 
Dies  at  Turin— Beza's  First  Thirty-three  Psalms  (1551)— 
The  Epistle  "to  the  Little  Flock" — Proscription  of 
Protestant  Books — Completion  of  the  Psalter  (1562) — 
Momentary  Popularity  of  the  Psalms  at  Court — Psalm- 
Singing  on  the  Promenades — Copyright  Secured — Multi- 
plication of  Editions  —  Gain  to  Protestantism  —  Beza's 
Later  Hymns. 

CHAPTER  XVn 

CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  HISTORY  .....  307 
Chiefly  a  Teacher  and  a  Man  of  Action — Writes  a  Life 
of  Calvin — A  Vindication  and  a  Eulogy — The  Ecclesi- 
astical History — An  Invaluable  Compilation — Errone- 
ously Ascribed  to  Beza — His  Icones — A  Picture  Gallery 
of  Worthies — Treatise  on  the  French  Pronunciation. 

CHAPTER    XVIII 
1590-1593 

THE  PATRIOTIC  PREACHER — HENRY  IV. 's  APOSTASY.       315 
Geneva    Threatened —The  Duke  of  Savoy    a   Persistent 
Jingmy — Sufferings  of  th^Citizens— EhKpient  Appeals  to 


Contents  xiii 


•AGE 


their  Devotion   and    Piety — Remonstrances  with    Henry 
IV.  on  his  Ahjuratit)n — Frankness  toward  the  King. 

CHAPTER   XIX 
beza's  later  years  in  geneva     ....     325 

Worldly   Circumstances — Annulment    of    Decree   of   the 
Parliament  of  Paris — Intercourse  with  his  Family — His 
Father's  Last  Wishes — An   Active  Old    Age — 'I'he    First 
Citizen  of  (leneva — Second  Marriage — Efforts  to  Convert 
him  to  Roman  Catholicism — Francis  of  Sales — Dragon- 
nades  of  the    Duke   of   Savoy — Sales   Encouraged  by  a 
Papal  Brief — First  Interview  with  Beza — An  Attempt  to 
Bribe  the  Reformer — Beza's  Reply — Reports  of  his  Con- 
version— Verses  on  a  Homely  Theme — Portrait  Drawn  by 
a  Visitor — Honourable  Letter  of  Henry  IV. — The  King 
Receives  Beza  and  Grants  his  Request — The  "  Escalade" 
(1602)  —  Beza    Renders    1-ublic    Thanks    for   the   City's 
Deliverance. 

CHAPTER  XX 

1605 

CLOSING  DAYS  .......       349 

Beza's    Last    Illness — His    Death    (October    13,    1605) — 
Universal  Sorrow. 

APPENDIX 

AUTOniOGRAPHICAL  LETTER  TO   WOLMAR  .  .       355 

TRANSCRIPT    OF    HEZA'S    LETTER    TO    PITHOU,    WITH 

TRANSLATION         ......       368 

INDEX     .  .  .  .  ,  ■  .  ,  .  .371 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


THEODORE  BEZA     ....         Frontispiece 

CHURCH    OF    ST.    MARY    MAGDALENE,  AT    VEZELAY  .  2 

MELIOR    (mELCHIOR)    WOLMAR  ....  8 

From  Beza's  "  Icones." 

THEODORE    BEZA    AT    THE    AGE    OF    29       .  .  .28 

From  first  edition  of  Beza's  "  Poemata." 

PIERRE    VIRET            .......  72 

LAUSANNE I02 

ANTOINE    DE    BOURBON,     KING    OF    NAVARRE     .             .  IIO 

JEANNE    d'aLBRET,    QUEEN    OF    NAVARRE            .             .  II4 

COLIGNY  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        122 

From  an  old  engraving  in  the  Print-Room, 
British  Museum. 

ODET,    CARDINAL    OF    CHASTILLON  .  .  .       I24 

FRANgOIS    DE    CHASTILLON,    LORD    OF    ANDELOT         .        I30 

THE    COLLOQUY    OF    POISSY,    SEPT.    9,    1561         .  .        134 

Reduced  copy  of  the  contemporary  engraving  of 

J.  Tortorel  and  J.  Perrissin. 

CHARLES    IX.  .......        158 

From  an  engraving  in  the  Print-Room,  British  Museum. 

PETER    MARTYR    VERMIGLI I96 

I.OUIS    OF    BOURBON,    PRINCE    OF    CONDE  .  .  .        198 

XV 


XVI 


Illustrations 


PAGE 

THE    MASSACRE    OF    VASSY,    MARCH    I,     1562      .  .        204 

Reduced  copy  of  the  contemporary  engraving  of 

J.  Tortorel  and  J.  Perrissin. 

FRANCOIS,    DUC    DE    GUISE         .....       226 
From  a  print  by  Theret. 
From  an  engraving  in  the  Print-Room,  British  Museum. 

ancient  portal  of  church  of  saint  pierre, 
geneva,  torn  down  in  middle  of  the 
i8th  century 244 

Redrawn  frem  Schaub's  "  Suisse  Historique  et 
Pittoresque." 

FACSIMILE    LETTER    OF    BEZA    TO    PITHOU,     T566  .        250 

Reduced  from  original  in  the  collection  of 

F.  J.  Dreer,  Philadelphia. 

A  FRENCH  NATIONAL  SYNOD  IN  THE   17TH  CENTURY       266 

From  an  engraving  by  G.  Schouten  in  Aymon's  "  Tons 

les  Synodes."     The  Hague,  1710. 

CLEMENT    MA ROT     .......        288 

From  a  painting  by  Carlone. 

CATHERINE    DE    MEDICIS  .....       302 

From  an  Engraving  in  the  Print-Room,  British  Museum. 

FRANCIS    OF    SALES 334 

NOTICE    OF     BEZA's    DEATH     AND    INVITATION    TO 

THE    FUNERAL  ......       350 

Reduced  from  only  known  copy  in  library  of  the  French 
Protestant  Historical  Society,  at  Paris. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE   CHIEF  WORKS   QUOTED    IN   THE   PRESENT 
WORK 

I.    The  Sources  and  MS.  Collections  and  Reprints  of 

the  Sources. 

Aymon,  Jean,  Tons  les  Synodes  N'ationaux  des  Eglises  RPformecs 
de  France.  The  Hague,  1710.  2  vols.  Contains  the  minutes  of 
the  twenty-nine  French  Protestant  National  Synods,  1559-1659. 
Prefixed  to  the  first  volume  (pages  1-283)  are  fifty  letters  written 
from  France  by  the  papal  nuncio  Cardinal  Prospero  di  Santa  Croce 
to  Cardinal  Borromeo,  giving  an  account  of  the  years  1 561-1565, 
including  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy. 

Baum,  Coll.  MSS.,  as  referred  to  in  the  footnotes  of  this  volume, 
designates  a  collection  of  many  hundred  copies  of  Beza's  letters 
found  in  the  libraries  of  Geneva,  Zurich,  etc.,  intended  for  use 
in  a  continuation  of  his  great  biography  mentioned  below.  This 
manuscript  collection  is  now  in  the  Bibliotheque  du  Protestantisme 
Fran5ais,  in  Paris. 

Benoist,  Elie,  Histoire  de  l" Edit  de  Nantes.  Delft,  1693-95.  3 
parts  in  5  vols. 

Beza,  Theodore,  Icones,  id  est,  Vera:  bnagines  Virortun  doctrina 
simul  et  pietate  illustrium,  etc.  (for  full  title  and  description  see 
page  312).     Geneva,  1580. 

Beza,  Theodore,  Traclationes  Theologiciv.  Geneva,  15S2.  3  vols., 
fol.     The  Reformer's  collected  theological  works. 

Bonnet,  Jules,  Letters  of  John  Calvin  compiled  from  the  original 
manuscripts  and  edited  with  historical  notes.  Translated  from  the 
original  Latin  and  French.     Edinburgh  and  Philadelphia,  s.  a.  4  vols. 

By  the  same  editor,  Lettres  Fran^aises  de  Jean  Calvin,  Paris, 
1S54.     2  vols, 


xvlli  Bibliography 

Bulletin  historique  el  litter  aire  de  la  Soci^te'  de  V  Histoire  du  Pro- 
ieslaniisme  Fran^ais.  Paris,  1853,  fo^-  This  monthly,  now  (1899) 
in  its  forty-eighth  year,  contains  a  vast  number  of  original  docu- 
ments heretofore  unpublished,  as  well  as  monographs,  etc.,  and  is 
indispensable  as  one  of  the  chief  sources  for  the  history  of  the 
French  Reformation  and  of  the  Huguenots. 

Calendar  of  State  Papers  (Foreign  Series)  preserved  in  the  State 
Paper  Department  of  H,  M.  Public  Record  Ofiice.  Reigns  of 
Edward  VI.,  Mary,  Elizabeth.  Edited  successively  by  Turnbull, 
Tytler,  and  vStevenson.     London,  1861,  foil. 

Calvini  Opera.  Edited  by  the  Strassburg  professors,  Baum, 
Cunitz,  Reuss,  Brunswick,  1863,  foil.  More  than  fifty  volumes  of 
this  accurate  and  comprehensive  work  have  appeared.  The  letters 
to  Calvin  and  other  illustrative  matter  are  scarcely  less  important  for 
history  than  the  Reformer's  own  letters. 

Conc^,  Mifoioires  de.  London,  1743.  6vols.,4to.  A  reproduction  of 
rare  tracts,  etc.,  of  the  sixteenth  century,  together  with  some  hitherto 
unedited  papers,  almost  all  of  great  interest  and  permanent  value. 

Crespin,  Jean  (Latinised  Crispinus),  Actiones  et  Monimenta  Mar-_ 
tyrum.  Geneva,  1560.  For  full  titles  of  the  early  French  and 
Latin  editions,  see  page  36.  An  accurate  republication  of  the  later 
editions  in  the  French  language,  was  published  with  notes  of 
Lelievre.     3  vols.     Toulouse,  i88g. 

De  Thou,  Jacques  Auguste  (Latinised  Thuanus),  Historiaruni  sui 
Teinporis  Libri  ij8.  Published  in  French  as*  well  as  in  Latin  in 
many  shapes  and  different  number  of  volumes.  The  French  ed. 
with  the  imprint  of  The  Hague,  1746,  in  11  vols.,  has  been  used. 

Haton,  Claude,  Me'moires.  Edited  by  Felix  Bourquelot.  2  vols. 
Paris,  1857.  The  work  forms  part  of  the  magnificent  "Collection 
de  Documents  Inedits  sur  I'Histoire  de  France,"  published  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  at  the  suggestion 
of  Guizot.  Haton  was  a  priest,  of  Meriot,  near  Provins.  His 
memoirs  cover  the  years  1553-82. 

Herminjard,  A.  L.,  Correspondance  des  R^fonnateurs  dans  les  Pays 
de  Langue  Franfuise.  Geneva  and  Paris,  1866,  foil.  9  vols,  have 
appeared  up  to  1897,  reaching  only  to  1544. 

Histoire  Fcclhiastique  des  Eglises  J\eforiiu'es  au  Royaume  de  France. 
Edition  nouvelle  avec  Commentaire,  etc.  Edited  by  Baum  and 
Cunitz.  3  vols.  Paris,  1883-89,  Best  edition  of  this  great  history 
\vh:ch  was  first  pul)lished  at  Antwerp  in  1580.     See  page  310, 


Bibliography  xlx 


Jacob,  Paul  L.,  (Eitvres  Francoises  de  Calvin,  recueillies  pour  la 
premiere  fois,  precedees  de  sa  vie,  par  Theodore  de  Beze.    Paris,  1S42, 

Languet,  Hubert,  Epistohe  Secreta.  Halle,  1699.  Collection 
of  despatches  of  a  shrewd,  honourable,  and  well  informed  statesman. 

La  Place,  Pierre  de,  Commentaires  de  V Estat  de  la  Religion  et  Re- 
publique  sous  les  rois  Henry  et  Francois  seconds  et  Charles  neufviesme. 
Paris,  1865.  Reprinted  in  the  "  Pantheon  Litteraire,"  ed.  by  J.  A. 
C.  Buchon.  Paris,  1836.  The  author,  an  eminent  judge,  was 
murdered  at  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day. 

Layard,  Sir  Henry,  Despatches  of  JMichele  Suriano  and  Marc'  An- 
tonio Barbara,  Venetian  Ambassadors  at  the  Court  of  France,  iS^o- 
T^6j.     (Publications  of  the  Hug.  Soc.  of  London)  Lymington,  1891. 

Le  Chroniqueiir.  An  historical  collection  under  this  name  pub- 
lished fortnightly  at  Lausanne  in  1S35  and  1836,  by  L.  Vulliemin. 
Contains  a  detailed  narrative  and  to  a  great  extent  the  documentary 
history  of  the  corresponding  years  three  centuries  back. 

Le  Livre  dti  Recteur.  Catalogue  of  the  Students  of  the  Academic 
of  Geneva  from  1559-1859.  Edited  by  C.  Le  Fort,  G.  Revillot,  and 
E.  Fick.     Geneva,  i860. 

Pasquier,  Etienne,  Les  Recherches  de  la  France.     Paris,  1621, 

Ricmond,  Florimond  de,  Historia  de  Ortti,  Progressu,  et  Riiina 
Hctreseon  hiiiiis  sceculi.  Cologne,  1614.  The  author,  a  counsellor 
of  the  Parliament  of  Toulouse,  had  from  a  Protestant  become  a 
Roman  Catholic,  and  his  book  betrays  his  strong  Roman  Catholic 
bias.     It  is  lively  and  interesting  and  is  full  of  striking  facts. 

Recueil  des  choses  mdmorables  faifes  et  pass^es  pour  le  faict  de  la 
Religion  et  Estat  de  ce  Royatime,  dcpiiis  la  mort  du  Roy  Henry  LL. 
jusqnes  an  commencement  des  troubles.  S.  1.  1565-  Subsequently 
incorporated  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Me'moires  de  Condt^. 

Serres,  Jean  de  (Serranus),  Comtnentarii  de  Statu  Religionis  ct 
Reipuhlictje  in  regno  Gallicv.  In  five  parts  or  volumes,  published  in 
1571-80,  the  first  four  sine  loco,  the  last  at  Leyden.  One  of  the 
most  faithful  and  valuable  of  the  histories  of  the  French  Protestants 
from  the  persecution  at  Paris  in  1557  to  the  publication  of  the  Edict 
of  1576.     The  last  volume  is  exceedingly  scarce. 

Zurich  Letters.  Correspondence  of  several  English  Bishops  ivith 
some  of  the  Helvetian  Reformers  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth.    Published  by  the  Parker  Society.     Cambridge,  1846. 


XX  Bibliography 

II.  Biographies  of  Beza  ai2d  Other  Works  Drawn  frojji 
the  Sources. 

Baum,  Johann  Wilhelm,  Thcodor  Beza  nach  handschriftUchen 
Quellen  dargestcllt.  Leipzig,  vol.  i.,  1843,  vol.  ii.,  in  two  parts, 
1 85 1,  1852.  The  most  thorough  and  scholarly  life  of  Beza,  but 
coming  down  only  to  1563,  The  appendices  in  this  work  contain 
many  documents,  especially  letters  of  Beza  printed  from  copies  made 
by  Prof.  Baum  in  various  libraries  on  the  Continent.  These  are 
generally  referred  to  in  the  notes  as  "  Baum  Doc." 

Benrath,  Karl,  Berjiardino  Ochino  of  Siena.  Translated  from 
the  German  by  H.  Zimmern.     New  York,  1877. 

Douen,  O.,  Clement  Mar ot  et  le  Psautier  Huguenot.  Paris,  1878, 
1879.  2  vols.  A  work  of  wide  research  published  in  part  at  the 
expense  of  the  French  government,  and  printed  by  the  national 
printing  ofifice.  A  portion  of  the  second  volume  is  devoted  to  the 
melodies  of  the  Psalms.  The  author's  bias  is  in  favour  of  Marot, 
whom  he  regards  as  a  finer  type  of  the  reformatory  movement  than 
Beza. 

Gaberel,  J.,  Histoire  de  V Eglise  de  Geneve  depiiis  le  Commence- 
ment de  la  Reforme  jusqu  'en  181^.     Geneva,  1855-63,  3  vols. 

Haag,  Eugene  and  Emile,  La  France  Protestante.  An  exceed- 
ingly valuable  biographical  work.  The  first  edition,  Paris,  1856, 
foil.,  10  vols.,  is  out  of  print.  The  second,  edited  by  Henri  Bordier, 
Paris,  1877,  foil.,  projected  on  a  much  more  extended  plan,  has  been 
temporarily  interrupted  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  volume  by  Mr, 
Bordier's  death. 

Heppe,  Heinrich,  Theodor  Beza,  Leben  und atisgewdhlte  Schriften. 
Elberfelt,  1861.  The  author,  a  professor  at  Marburg,  contributed 
this  volume  to  the  series  ("  Leben  und  ausg.  Schriften  der  Vater  und 
Begriinder  d.  reformirten  Kirche ")  edited  by  Hagenbach.  Less 
full  and  detailed  than  Baum's  biography,  it  possesses  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  covering  the  entire  life  of  Beza. 

Sayous,  A.,  Etudes  Litte'raires  sur  les  Ecrivains  Fran^ais  de  la 
Reformation.  Paris,  1841.  2  vols.  Discriminating  and  scholarly 
sketches.  The  sketch  of  Beza  in  the  first  volume  covers  more  than 
a  hundred  pages. 

Schlosser,  F.  C.,  Leben  des  Thcodor  de  Beza  und  des  Peter  Martyr 
Vermili.  Heidelberg,  1809.  The  life  of  Beza  is  written  fairly  but 
unevenly  and  with  occasional  inaccuracy. 


Bibliography  xxi 

Weiss,  N.,  La  Chambre  Ardente.  Paris,  1889.  A  study  on  re- 
ligious persecution  under  Francis  I.  and  Henry  II,,  containing  about 
five  hundred  recently  discovered  sentences  rendered  by  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris. 

Many  other  works  less  frequently  used  are  omitted  from  this 
list. 

To  the  above  may  be  added  the  following  three  Huguenot  histor- 
ies written  by  the  author,  to  which  frequent  reference  is  made  and  in 
which  additional  authorities  are  given. 

History  of  the  Rise  of  the  Htiguenots  of  France.  New  York ,  1 8  79, 
London,  1880.  2  vols.  Covers  the  period  from  15 12  to  1574,  in- 
cluding the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day. 

'I'he  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre.  New  York  and  Lonchjn. 
1886.  2  vols.  Covers  the  period  from  1574  to  1610,  or  to  the  death 
of  Henry  IV.,  including  the  Wars  of  the  League,  the  Abjuration  of 
Henry  IV.,  and  the  Enactment  of  the  Edict  of  the  Nantes. 

The  Huguenots  and  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  New 
York  and  London,  1895.  2  vols.  Covers  the  period  from  1610  to 
1802,  terminating  with  the  full  recognition  of  Protestantism  by 
Napoleon  Bonaparte. 


THEODORE   BEZA 


CHAPTER  I 

CHILDHOOD   AND   YOUTH 

1519-1539 

THE  leaders  of  the  great  Reformation  differed 
from  one  another  as  distinctly  in  personal  traits 
as  in  the  incidents  of  their  lives  and  the  work  which 
they  were  called  to  perform.  Theodore  Beza,  whose 
career  and  influence  I  purpose  to  trace,  did  not  pos- 
sess precisely  the  same  remarkable  natural  endow- 
ments that  fitted  Martin  Luther  and  John  Calvin 
for  the  accomplishment  of  their  brilliant  under- 
takings, but  in  a  different  sphere  his  task  was  of 
scarcely  inferior  importance,  and  was  accomplished 
equally  well.  Like  Melanchthon,  he  belonged  to 
another  and  not  less  essential  class  of  men  whose 
great  office  it  is  to  consolidate  and  render  permanent 
what  has  been  begun  and  carried  forward  to  a  certain 
point  of  development  by  others.  But  between  Beza 
and  Melanchthon  there  was  a  marked  contrast  of 
allotted  activity.      Melanchthon  was  born  fourteen 


^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

years  later  than  Luther,  and  survived  him  by  the 
same  number  of  years.  He  was,  therefore,  a  younger 
contemporary  of  the  great  German  Reformer,  and  his 
office  was  preeminently  that  of  supplementing  what 
seemed  naturally  lacking  in  the  master  whom  he 
loved  and  revered,  moderating  that  master's  inordin- 
ate fire,  by  his  prudence  restraining  the  older  Re- 
former's intemperate  zeal,  by  his  superior  learning 
and  scholarship  qualifying  himself  to  become  in  a 
peculiarly  appropriate  sense  the  teacher  of  the  doc- 
trines which  Luther  had  propounded.  Beza  was 
still  nearer  to  Calvin  in  point  of  birth,  for  only  the 
space  of  ten  years  separated  them.  But  he  outlived 
Calvin  more  than  four  times  that  number  of  years, 
and  ended  his  life  at  over  fourscore,  and  early  in 
another  century.  Thus  while  Melanchthon  is  natur- 
ally to  be  regarded  as  a  companion  of  Luther,  Beza 
presents  himself  to  view  chiefly  as  a  theological 
successor  of  Calvin,  in  whose  doctrinal  system  he 
introduced  little  change  and  which  he  merely  accent- 
uated, and  as  an  independent  leader  of  the  French 
Reformed  Churches  during  over  a  third  of  a  century. 
More,  perhaps,  than  any  of  the  other  prominent 
leaders  of  the  great  religious  movement  of  his  time 
Beza  is  entitled  to  be  styled  the  ' '  courtly  Reformer.  " 
Sprung  from  the  ranks  of  the  old  French  nobility,  a 
man  for  whom  access  to  the  favoured  circle  of  the 
powerful  and  opulent  was  open  from  earliest  youth, 
with  wealthy  connections,  nurtured  in  ease  and  in 
the  prospect  of  preferment,  into  whatever  depart- 
ment of  Church  or  State  he  might  elect  to  enter,  he 
manifested  in  his  bearing,  his  manners,  and  even  in 


w 


'^mMUAPJsmm "  "Pill  ...  ^mmj^  'iim  '^ 


CHURCH  OF  SAINT   MARY   MAGDALENE,  AT  VEZELAY. 


1539]  Childhood  and  Youth  3 

his  language  the  effects  of  association  upon  equal 
terms  with  the  best  and  most  highly  educated  men 
of  his  time.  This  was  an  advantage  that  widened 
the  sphere  of  his  influence,  both  at  the  court  of 
Charles  IX.  and  at  that  of  Henry  IV. 

The  members  of  the  family  from  which  he  sprang 
wrote  their  name  De  Bcsze.  Theodore  himself  so 
wrote  it  to  the  end  of  his  days,  save  when  he  gave 
it  the  Latin  form  of  Beza.  The  family  was  of  old 
Burgundian  stock,  Theodore's  birthplace  was  the 
town  of  Vezelay,  now  a  decayed  and  insignificant 
place  of  somewhat  less  than  twelve  hundred  souls. 
Situated  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  south- 
east of  the  capital  of  France,  it  continues  in  its  ob- 
scurity to  carry  on  a  limited  traffic  in  wood,  grain, 
and  wine,  the  wood  being  obtained  in  the  extensive 
forest  of  Avallon  and  being  sent  down  the  river 
Yonne,  to  supply  in  part  the  needs  of  Paris  and  its 
environs.  Even  in  the  sixteenth  century,  Vezelay 
lived  chiefly  on  memories  of  its  past  distinction.  In 
attestation  of  former  greatness,  it  pointed  with  pride 
to  a  famous  abbey  church  dedicated  to  Saint  Mary 
Magdalene.  The  ruins  still  crown  a  hill  overlooking 
the  town,  and  even  now  arouse  the  curiosity  and 
elicit  the  admiration  of  such  visitors  as,  from  time 
to  time,  turn  aside  from  the  beaten  ways  of  travel  to 
more  secluded  paths.  Hard-by  is  still  pointed  out 
the  spot  where,  on  Palm  Sunday,  in  the  year  1146, 
the  Second  Crusade  was  preached  by  Bernard,  the 
celebrated  Abbot  of  Clairvaux.  The  slope  of  a  hill 
at  the  gate  of  the  place  was  occupied  on  that  famous 
occasion  by  a  throng  of  lords  and  knights,  of  eccle- 


4  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

siastics  and  persons  of  every  station,  too  numerous 
to  be  contained  by  any  building,  all  of  whom  were 
attracted  to  Vezelay  by  the  fame  of  the  eloquence 
and  piety  of  the  future  saint.  Upon  the  great  plat- 
form erected  at  the  base  of  the  hill  sat  Louis  VII., 
King  of  France,  and  near  him  the  orator  who  divided 
with  his  Majesty  the  attention  of  the  vast  concourse 
of  spectators.  Here  it  was  that,  at  the  close  of 
Bernard's  fervid  appeal  for  Palestine,  just  bereft  of 
the  flower  of  its  possessions  by  the  fall  of  the  city 
of  Edessa,  not  only  the  lords  almost  to  a  man,  but 
Louis  VII.  himself  and  his  wife  Eleanor  of  Guy- 
enne,  begged  the  privilege  of  attaching  the  symbol 
of  the  holy  cross  to  their  garments  and  of  joining  the 
crusade  soon  to  set  forth  to  rescue  from  the  pollut- 
ing foot  of  the  infidel  the  land  once  made  holy  by 
the  tread  of  the  Son  of  God.' 

Nearly  four  centuries  had  elapsed  from  the  day  on 
which  Vezelay  resounded  with  the  cries  of  "  Dens 
vult  !  Detis  vult !  "  interrupting  Bernard's  address, 
when,  in  1 5 19,  on  Saint  John  Baptist's  Day,  the  14th 
of  June,  Old  Style,  or  the  24th,  New  Style,  was  born 
the  future  French  Reformer.  He  was  a  son  of  Pierre 
de  Bfeze,  the  bailli  of  the  place.  Vezelay,  having 
lost  its  importance  in  other  respects,  still  retained 
the  honour  of  being  the  seat  of  a  royal  officer  bear- 
ing this  designation.  The  position  was  as  honour- 
able as  it  was  influential.  Pierre  de  Beze  had  married 
Marie  Bourdelot,  also  of  noble  descent,  by  whom  he 
had  had  six  children  before  the  birth  of  Theodore — 


1  Michaud,  Flistoirc  des  Croisadcs,  ii.,  125  seq.  ;  Mills,  History  0/ 
the  Crusades.  120, 


1539]  Childhood  and  Youth  5 

two  sons  and  four  daughters.  Her  kinsmen,  as  well 
as  his,  were  persons  of  prominence.  Nicholas  de 
B^ze,  brother  of  Pierre,  was  a  counsellor  or  judge 
of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  the  highest  judicial  body 
in  France.  Being  wealthy,  unmarried,  and  of  an 
affectionate  disposition,  Nicholas  would  gladly  have 
had  all  the  children  of  Pierre  brought  to  his  house 
in  the  capital,  there  to  be  reared  under  the  most 
favourable  circumstances ;  nor  would  he  have  spared 
either  trouble  or  expense.  Theodore  subsequently 
styled  him  the  "  Maecenas  "  of  the  family.  Another 
brother,  having  entered  the  Church,  possessed,  as 
Abbot  of  Froidmont,  the  means  of  rendering  him- 
self no  less  serviceable  to  the  promotion  of  the  in- 
terests of  his  nephews.  Evidently  if  Theodore 
should  fail  of  promotion  either  in  Church  or  in  the 
judicial  career,  it  would  not  be  from  the  lack  of 
strong  family  connections. 

There  must,  it  would  seem,  have  been  something 
particularly  winning  in  Theodore,  the  youngest  child 
in  a  family  of  seven  children  ;  for  he  had  not  emerged 
from  infancy  when  his  uncle,  the  member  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris,  being  on  a  visit  to  the  bailli  of 
Vezelay,  conceived  so  strong  an  admiration  and 
affection  for  the  child  that  he  begged  to  be  allowed 
to  take  him  back  with  him  to  the  capital.  The 
father  consented.  The  mother  at  first  demurred, 
but  afterwards  yielded  reluctantly  in  deference  to 
her  husband's  command.  She  insisted,  however, 
on  accompanying  her  little  son  to  Paris,  where  she 
left  him.  Nor  did  she  long  survive  the  enforced 
separation  from  her  child.     Theodore,  who  in  after 


6  Theodore  Beza  [1519. 

years  set  It  down  as  a  singular  mark  of  the  divine 
goodness  that  he  had  been  born  of  such  a  mother, 
praises,  and  apparently  not  without  sufficient  reason, 
both  the  intellectual  and  the  moral  endowments  of 
Marie  Bourdelot.  To  extraordinary  nerve  and  dex- 
terity she  added  great  kindliness  of  heart.  Her  at- 
tention to  the  wants  of  the  poor  was  assiduous.  They 
repaid  her  untiring  solicitude  with  a  sincere  love. 

It  was  no  ordinary  misfortune  for  Theodore  to  be 
separated  from,  and  shortly  after  deprived  altogether 
of,  such  a  mother  and  at  a  so  tender  age.  He  was 
but  a  puny  child,  of  so  weakly  a  constitution  that 
he  barely  walked  at  five  years  of  age.  When  this 
dangerous  stage  was  passed,  his  physical  ailments 
seemed  only  to  increase.  At  one  point  in  his  child- 
hood he  became  the  victim  of  a  malady  so  painful 
that  he  was  once,  when  crossing  one  of  the  bridges 
over  the  Seine,  about  to  throw  himself  into  the  river 
for  the  purpose  of  ending  his  life  and  his  misery  in 
a  single  moment. 

Such  are  some  of  the  incidents  that  have  come 
down  to  us  in  regard  to  Beza's  childhood  and  for 
which  we  are  indebted  to  the  autobiographical 
notices  inserted  in  a  letter  prefaced  to  his  Confes- 
sion of  the  Christian  Faith.  The  letter  was  ad- 
dressed to  Melchior  Wolmar,  a  distinguished  scholar, 
to  whom,  under  God,  the  future  Reformer  owed,  more 
than  to  father  or  mother,  that  training  both  of  the 
intellect  and  of  the  affections  which  qualified  him 
for  the  great  part  he  was  to  play  in  the  affairs  of 
Church  and  State.' 


^  This  letter  is  given  in  translation  in  the  Ai")pendix. 


1539]  Childhood  and  VouUi  7 

Melchior  Wolmar  was  born  in  ancient  Suabia,  or 
in  what  now  constitutes  the  southerly  part  of  the 
kingdom  of  Wiirtemberg,  at  the  httle  town  of  Rott- 
weil.  Following  an  uncle,  Michael  Rottli,  to  Bern, 
in  Switzerland,  he  became  first  pupil,  then  success(;r 
of  his  kinsman  in  a  Latin  school  which  the  latter 
had  founded.  Thence  Wolmar  passed  to  Fribourg, 
and  a  year  or  two  later  to  Paris.  Extreme  indigence 
did  not  prevent  him  from  gratifying  his  taste  for 
study,  and  he  gave  himself  so  ardently  to  the  mas- 
tery of  the  Greek  language,  under  the  guidance  of 
Nicholas  Berauld  and  other  competent  instructors, 
that  of  one  hundred  young  men  that  came  up  for 
the  degree  of  licentiate  at  the  University,  his  name 
was  the  first  upon  the  list  of  the  successful  candi- 
dates. The  pleasures  or  honours  of  the  capital  were 
not  so  attractive  to  him  as  to  detain  him  long  on  the 
banks  of  the  Seine,  or,  more  probably,  Wolmar's 
leaning  toward  Protestant  views  was  too  pronounced 
to  make  a  sojourn  at  Paris  either  comfortable  or 
safe.  Thus  it  was  that,  about  the  year  1527,  he 
established  at  Orleans  a  school  for  youth  which 
soon  obtained  a  considerable  degree  of  popularity. 
A  few  boys  were  received  into  the  family  of  the 
founder.' 

It  was  perhaps  a  year  after  this  time  that  Beza's 
uncle  happened  to  entertain  at  his  house  in  Paris  a 
relation  residing  in  Orleans.  The  guest  was  a  man 
of  high  position,  being  a  member  of  the  king's 
greater  council.      In  the  course  of  the  meal,  noticing 


'  See  Herminjard.  Correspondance  des  Kcforinatii<rs  dans  ks  Fa\ 
de  Langue  Fran^aisf,  ii.,  280,  281,  note. 


8  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Theodore,  who  was  present,  a  boy  nine  years  old,  he 
remarked  that  he  had  himself  a  son  of  about  the 
same  age,  whom  he  had  placed  with  a  certain  Wol- 
mar.  So  highly  did  he  praise  the  learning  and  abili- 
ties of  this  foreigner  that,  on  the  instant,  Beza's 
uncle,  who  had  never  before  heard  of  Wolmar, 
declared  his  intention  to  take  the  rare  opportunity 
and  to  send  his  nephew  to  Orleans.  He  begged 
that  Theodore  might  be  a  companion  of  his  guest's 
son.  He  would  make  no  account  of  the  opposition 
which  all  the  rest  of  the  family  made  to  the  plan. 
It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that,  when,  many  years 
later,  Beza  reviewed  the  circumstances  from  the 
standpoint  of- a  Protestant  and  a  Protestant  leader, 
he  could  not  but  regard  the  impulse  that  led  his 
uncle  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  to  send  him  away 
from  the  University  of  Paris,  long  since  regarded  as 
the  most  august  educational  estabhshment  of'  the 
world,  to  a  school  newly  started  in  a  province  by  a 
stranger,  as  a  signal  exhibition  of  the  direct  inter- 
ference of  God.  He  styled  the  day  on  which  he 
reached  Wolmar's  house  at  Orleans — it  was  the  5th 
of  December,  1528 — his  second  nativity;  for  it  was 
the  point  in  his  life  from  which  was  to  be  reckoned 
the  beginning  of  every  advantage  he  received. 
Never  has  pupil  more  enthusiastically  admitted  the 
instructor  of  his  boyhood  into  the  company  of  men 
whose  pictures  he  affectionately  cherishes  in  his 
memory,  than  did  Beza  insert  the  portrait  of  Wol- 
mar in  the  gallery  of  worthies  which,  many  years 
later,  he  gave  to  the  world  with  words  of  high 
praise.      Judging  from  the  profile  there  sketched, 


MELIOR   (MELCHIORt  WOLMAR. 
FROM    BEZA'S    "ICONES. " 


1539]  Childhood  and  Youth  9 

the  eminent  scholar's  appearance  indicated  the 
strength  of  the  mind  that  lay  within.  The  fore- 
head was  high  and  prominent,  the  nose  slightly 
aquiline,  the  eyes  full  of  life,  the  mouth  small  but 
firm.' 

Melchior  Wolmar  was  no  longer  an  obscure  man. 
About  1530  he  was  invited  by  the  good  Princess 
Margaret  of  Angouleme,  sister  of  Francis  I.  and 
grandmother  of  Henry  IV.,  to  be  one  of  that  band 
of  eminent  scholars  with  whom  she  surrounded  her- 
self in  Bourges,  the  capital  of  her  duchy  of  Berry. 
When  Wolmar  accepted  the  call,  young  Theodore 
Beza  went  with  him  to  continue  his  studies. 

If  the  autobiographical  letter  which  we  print  in 
the  Appendix  fails  to  supply  us  with  a  complete  list 
of  the  branches  the  boy  pursued  under  his  beloved 
teacher,  his  words  afford' a  sketch  which  the  reader's 
imagination  may  readily  fill  out.  The  teacher  was 
painstaking  and  gave  hirnself  unreservedly  to  his 
pupils.  He  found  in  Beza  a  mind  fired  with  a  desire 
to  learn.  If  the  natural  sciences  were  few  and  im- 
perfectly understood  at  that  time,  the  literature  of 
ancient  Rome  and  Greece  was  a  treasury  upon  which 
students  might  draw  without  stint.  It  would  have 
been  difficult  for  a  lad  of  even  moderate  ability  to 
be  constantly  under  the  faithful  instruction  of  any 
respectable  teacher  for  seven  years  without  acquiring 
great  familiarity  with  the  classical  tongues.  Under 
so  admirable  a  humanist  as  Wolmar,  and  so  unself- 
ishly devoted  to  his  little  group  of  ambitious  youth, 

'  See  Beza's  Icones.  The  book  is  not  paged  and  the  portraits  are 
pot  numbered. 


lo  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Beza  and  his  companions  gained  a  command  of  both 
Latin  and  Greek  such  as  few  men  in  our  times  can 
claim  to  possess.  To  Beza  Latin  became  as  familiar 
as  his  mother  tongue.  He  used  it  ever  afterwards 
readily,  correctly,  and  effectively,  as  one  needed  to 
be  able  to  use  it  who  was  to  speak  before  kings  and 
the  most  cultured  of  audiences.  The  two  languages 
at  once  became  the  key  to  unlock  the  treasures  of 
knowledge  laid  up  in  past  ages.  It  was  no  hyperbole 
in  Beza's  mouth  to  say  that  there  was  not  a  branch 
of  learning,  even  to  jurisprudence,  into  whose  mys- 
teries he  was  not  at  least  partially  initiated  under 
the  guidance  of  an  instructor  who  held  himself 
rather  a  friend  and  companion  in  study  than  a  dis- 
tant and  austere  pedagogue.  Best  of  all,  in  Beza's 
view,  Wolmar  had  not  neglected  the  religious  wel- 
fare of  his  pupils,  and  had  imbued  them  with  the 
knowledge  of  true  religion  drawn  from  the  Word  of 
God,  thereby  giving  him  a  claim  to  their  imperish- 
able gratitude. 

Yet  Theodore  Beza  was  certainly  at  this  time  no 
ardent  convert  in  whom  clear  convictions  of  truth 
had  been  immediately  succeeded  by  overmastering 
convictions  of  duty  and  by  a  determination  to  re-, 
nounce  all  selfish  plans  in  favour  of  a  life  of  volun- 
tary consecration  to  a  Master  whose  service  he 
henceforth  joyfully  espoused.  This  assertion  is 
abundantly  proved  by  his  life  for  the  next  ten 
years.  Fully  as  he  may  have  accepted,  and  doubt- 
less did  accept,  the  Word  of  God  as  authoritative, 
and  sincerely  as  he  rejected  in  his  heart,  and  pur- 
posed  at   some   future   and   convenient  season  to 


1539]  Childhood  and  Youth  n 

repudiate  openly,  such  doctrines  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  as  he  had  learned  to  be  unscript- 
ural,  along  with  the  rites  which  he  now  viewed  as 
absurd  and  superstitious,  he  was  by  no  means  ready 
as  yet  to  make  the  sacrifices  which  the  frank  accept- 
ance of  the  "  new  faith  "  demanded.  If  his  intel- 
lect approved  the  creed  in  attestation  of  which  many 
humble  men  and  women — carders,  weavers,  and  the 
like — cheerfully  suffered  martyrdom  in  France  about 
this  time,  counting  the  present  life  as  insignificant 
and  valueless  in  comparison  with  the  life  eternal, 
Beza  was  still  to  wait  many  a  year  before  reaching 
such  a  condition  of  mind  and  heart  as  was  theirs. 
The  present  life  with  its  pleasures  and  ambitions 
occupied  both  mind  and  heart  pretty  fully  as  yet. 

It  is  interesting  at  this  point  to  notice  that  there 
was  another  youth  destined  to  be  a  leader  in  the 
Protestant  Reformation  whose  life  was  equally,  pos- 
sibly even  more  deeply,  affected  by  contact  with 
Melchior  Wolmar.  This  was  the  young  student 
from  Noyon,  Jean  Calvin,  who  also  sought  to  profit 
by  the  German  instructor's  great  familiarity  with 
the  Greek  language.  His  residence  was  not  a  pro- 
tracted one.  He  arrived  after  Wolmar  had  removed 
to  Bourges,  and  he  was  very  shortly  recalled  home 
by  the  death  of  his  father.  Whether  the  two  pupils, 
Beza  and  Calvin,  were  at  this  time  brought  into  re- 
lations of  close  intimacy,  is  not  clear.  The  disparity 
of  their  ages  may  well  have  kept  apart  the  young 
man  of  twenty-two  and  the  boy  of  twelve,  but  the 
elder  not  less  than  the  younger  imbibed  the  views  of 
their  common  teacher.      It  is  in  fact  the  statement 


12  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

of  one  of  the  most  inveterate  enemies  of  the  French 
Reformation,  that  it  was  owing  to  a  direct  sugges- 
tion of  Wolmar  that  the  young  Calvin  abandoned 
the  study  of  the  Code  of  Justinian  to  apply  himself 
to  the  study  of  theology,  and  that  this  was  the 
beginning  of  that  career  which  was  to  prove  the 
source  of  countless  damage  to  the  Christian  Church. 
Wolmar,  although  feigning  to  be  a  Catholic,  was, 
says  this  writer,  a  means  of  instilling  into  Calvin  the 
Lutheran  poison,  with  which  Calvin  during  his  own 
lifetime  in  turn  infected  many  thousands  of  souls  to 
their  eternal  ruin.' 

Calvin's  stay  with  Wolmar  was  suddenly  brought 
to  an  end,  as  has  been  stated.  That  of  Beza  was 
terminated,  four  or  five  years  later,  by  Wolmar's 
return  to  Germany.  Recalled  to  his  native  land, 
Wolmar  would  gladly  have  taken  with  him  his 
promising  student,  but  Beza's  father  resolutely  de- 
clined to  grant  his  permission,  and  insisted  that 
Theodore  should  retrace  his  steps  to  the  city  of 
Orleans,  there  to  devote  himself  to  the  mastery  of 
civil  law. 

As  the  son  obeyed  reluctantly  (May,  1535),  so  he 
found  no  great  pleasure  in  his  new  task.  The  study 
of  the  law  pursued  without  intelligent  method,  and 
taught,  as  it  appeared  to  him,  in  a  barbarous  man- 
ner, inspired  him,  not  with  admiration,  but  with 
aversion.  Consequently,  while  not  neglecting  his 
legal  studies,  he  began  to  devote  a  considerable, 
possibly  the  greater,  part  of  his  time  to  polite  let- 

*  Florimond  de  Rsemond,  Ilistoria  de  Ortu,  Progressu  et  Ruina 
Hcereseon  hujus  Scsculi,  ii.,  434,  435  (lib.  vii,,  c.  9). 


1539]  Childhood  and  Youth  13 

ters,  and  found  a  singular  delight  in  both  Greek  and 
Latin  authors.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the 
French  tongue  was  as  yet  rude.  France  had  thus 
far  produced  few  writers  of  genuine  literary  merit. 
There  was  little  in  contemporaneous  literature  to 
divert  Beza  from  the  perusal  of  the  masterpieces  of 
ancient  Athens  and  Rome. 

Poetry,  in  particular,  attracted  him  greatly.  He 
appreciated  the  verses  of  the  poets  of  a  bygone  age, 
and  it  was  no  difficult  thing  for  a  youth  of  his  tastes 
and  station  to  imagine  himself  born  to  be  a  poet. 
Nor  indeed  was  he  altogether  mistaken.  Whatever 
may  be  said  of  the  use  to  which  he  at  first  applied 
his  poetical  abilities,  and  however  much  those  abili- 
ties, when  subsequently  employed  in  the  service  of 
religion,  have,  especially  in  our  age,  been  studiously 
underrated,^  it  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel  that  while 
Beza  was  possessed  of  no  genius  calculated  by  its 
scintillations  to  arouse  the  enthusiastic  admiration 
of  the  world,  his  poetical  gifts  were  of  no  mean  rank. 
It  is  no  accident  that  the  "  battle-psalm  "  of  the 
Huguenots,  so  well  adapted  to  be  sung  at  the 
charge,  as  it  was  so  often  sung  during  the  course  of 
whole  centuries,  was  not  from  the  pen  of  the  facile 
and  timid  Clement  Marot,  but  from  the  pen  of 
Theodore  Beza,  his  resolute  and  more  thoroughly 
convinced  collaborator  in  the  preparation  of'^the 
Huguenot  psalter. 

The  time  for  writing  the  Protestant  battle-psalm 
and  such  serious  compositions,  however,  was  as  yet 

>  Notably  by  M.  O.  Douen  in  his  Clement  Marot  et  le  Fsautier 
IJ'ugnt-'not  (ya.r\<,,  1S78-79,  2  vols.). 


14  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

in  the  distant  future,  then  to  be  composed  under 
the  play  of  strong  and  serious  views  of  life.  For 
the  present  his  poetical  gifts  led  Beza  to  associate 
himself  with  a  select  band  of  young  men  of  similar 
tastes,  all  inclined  to  unite  the  study  of  the  law  with 
the  more  seductive  pursuit  of  the  Muses.  They 
were  some  of  the  most  cultured  and  learned  mem- 
bers of  the  University  of  Orleans,  men  who,  when 
at  a  later  date  Beza  was  beginning  his  remarkable 
career  as  a  Reformer  in  Switzerland,  had  already 
secured  high  honours  in  the  land  upon  which  Beza's 
conscientious  convictions  had  compelled  him  reluc- 
tantly but  deliberately  to  turn  his  back. 

What  the  poems  were  that  Beza  wrote  at  this 
period,  we  shall  examine  a  little  farther  on. 

Four  years  elapsed  from  the  date  when  Beza 
parted  from  Wolmar — four  years  of  a  decorous  and 
blameless  life  spent  in  the  society  of  honourable  and 
scholarly  men — when,  in  August,  1539,  his  stay  at 
Orleans  came  to  an  end.  He  had  been  promoted 
to  the  degree  of  licentiate  in  law,  and  he  left  the 
university  on  the  banks  of  the  Loire  to  return  to 
Paris.  Let  it  not  be  imagined  that  the  training  he 
had  received  at  Orleans  even  in  the  matter  of  law 
had  been  insignificant  in  its  bearing  upon  his  subse- 
quent course,  nor  that  he  had  failed  to  exhibit  that 
wonderful  power  of  acquisition  which  characterised 
his  subsequent  efforts  in  every  other  department  of 
knowledge.  Of  his  great  popularity  with  his  fellow- 
students,  there  is  evidence  enough  in  the  cir- 
cumstance that  "  the  nation  of  Germany  " — the 
scholastic  division  into  which,   as  a  native  of  Bur- 


1539]  Childhood  and  Youth  15 

i^undy,  he  was  admitted — selected  him  to  be  its  head 
under  the  title  of  "  procurator."  As  such  not  only 
did  he  preside  over  the  internal  affairs  of  the  students 
of  his  "  nation,"  but,  with  the  other  nine  procura- 
tors, had  a  vote  in  the  university  council  even  in 
such  important  matters  as  the  election  of  the  rector 
of  the  institution/ 

'  Heppe,    Thcodor  Beza,  8. 


CHAPTER   II 

BEZA  IN   PARIS 
1539-I548 

THEODORE  BEZA  had  lately  entered  upon  his 
twenty-first  year  when,  having  further  literary 
or  professional  studies  in  view,  he  returned  to  the 
French  capital.  His  prospects  and  his  mental  atti- 
tude deserve  notice.  He  was  a  man  of  leisure,  well 
provided  with  friends,  possessed  of  abundant  means 
of  present  support,  and  apparently  the  master  of  a 
secure  future.  His  uncle,  the  member  of  the  judi- 
cial Parliament  of  Paris,  the  best  friend  of  his  child- 
hood, had  indeed  been  dead  for  seven  years;  but 
his  father's  other  brother,  the  Abbe  de  Froidmont, 
was  still  alive  and  was  not  less  attached  to  him  than 
the  judge  had  been.  Theodore  was  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  revenues  of  two  rich  benefices  amount- 
ing together  to  about  seven  hundred  gold  crowns. 
His  friends  had  made  this  weighty  provision  for  him 
in  his  absence  and  despite  the  fact  that  he  was  not 
in  orders,  and,  according  to  his  own  admission,  as 
ignorant  as  any  other  layman  could  possibly  be  of 
all  matters  of  a  clerical  nature.  As  if  this  were  not 
enough,  his  good  uncle  had  fully  made  up  his  mind 

16 


154S]  Beza  in  Paris  17 

that  Theodore  should  succeed  him  in  his  abbey, 
worth,  at  the  very  least,  five  thousand  gold  crowns 
a  year.  Besides  this,  Theodore's  eldest  brother,  so 
infirm  in  body  that  his  life  was  despaired  of,  held 
certain  other  ecclesiastical  benefices.  There  was 
every  reason  to  believe  that  these  would  ultimately 
go  to  swell  Theodore's  income. 

In  short,  the  young  man  was  surrounded  with 
every  allurement  to  a  life  of  ease  and  comfort.  Re- 
latives and  connections  of  the  family  by  marriage 
were  alike  disposed  to  further  his  desires;  while 
other  friends,  whose  favour  was  conciliated  by  the 
reputation  he  had  already  gained  and  by  the  pre- 
dictions made  of  his  future  distinction,  stood  ready 
to  applaud  and  congratulate.  Whether  he  should 
select  the  Church  or  the  Bar,  his  success  seemed 
equally  assured. 

In  his  reminiscences  of  the  period  of  his  life  now 
in  question,  Beza  informs  us  that  at  this  very  time 
he  was  conscious  that  all  these  advantages  were  but 
snares  laid  for  his  feet  by  the  powers  of  evil,  with 
the  view  of  preventing  him  from  choosing  the  path 
which  his  inner  convictions  prompted  him  to  enter 
upon.  He  had,  that  is  to  say,  long  since  formed 
the  resolution  that,  so  soon  as  he  should  find  him- 
self master  of  himself  and  possessed  of  a  certain 
competence,  he  would  leave  France.  He  would 
make  his  way  to  Germany,  rejoin  his  old  preceptor, 
and,  in  society  with  Wolmar,  enjoy  the  liberty  of 
professing  his  conscientious  convictions,  even  at  the 
sacrifice  of  more  brilliant  worldly  prospects. 

Meanwhile,  however,  there  was  little  to  show  that 


1 8  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

he  had  not  renounced  the  hopes  kindled  within  him 
by  the  words  and  example  of  Wolmar.  Without 
giving  a  loose  rein  to  dissipation  or  riot,  and  while 
living  what  was  regarded  as  an  exemplary  life  for  a 
young  man  of  station,  wealth,  and  brilliant  expecta- 
tions, he  was  quite  content  to  devote  the  ease  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  his  position  to  the  pursuit  of  the 
Muses  and  to  whatever  literary  studies  his  fancy 
might  dictate. 

Such  a  life,  however,  was  as  far  from  meeting  the 
legitimate  ambition  of  his  father,  as  it  was  from 
satisfying  the  demands  of  conscience.  Conse- 
quently, the  next  few  years  were  in  reality  as  full 
of  struggle  and  discontent  as  they  might  have  been 
supposed  replete  with  satisfaction  and  quiet.  A 
brief  sketch  of  Beza's  experience  at  this  time  is 
fortunately  left  us  in  a  letter  written  by  him  to 
an  old  comrade  at  Dijon.  When  he  returned  from 
Orleans,  Theodore  says  to  his  friend,  his  father 
looked  to  his  devoting  himself  at  once  to  the  prac- 
tice of  the  legal  profession.  Unfortunately  the  very 
thought  of  such  a  life  inspired  him  with  disgust. 
The  "  palais,"  or  parliament-house,  seemed  a  house 
of  bondage ;  to  enter  its  walls  was  to  become  a  bond- 
man for  whom  there  was  no  hope  of  escaping  a  hate- 
ful drudgery.'  As  much  as  the  father  insisted,  so 
much  the  son  resisted,  urging,  not  without  reason, 
that  his  previous  training,  not  to  speak  of  the 
natural  bent  of  his  mind,  disqualified  him  for  the 
lucrative  but  repulsive  profession  to  which  he  was 
urged.      Apparently   the  disputes   between    father 

'  Beza  to  Pompon,  Paris.  July  19.  s.  a.     Baum,  i.,  91. 


I54S]  Beza  in  Paris  19 

and  son  were  frequent,  protracted,  and  animated. 
They  were  ended,  or  at  least  adjourned,  through 
the  intercession  of  Beza's  elder  brother.  Unable  to 
oppose  the  united  entreaties  of  his  two  sons,  the 
father  became  less  obdurate,  and  domestic  harmony 
was  finally  restored  by  a  compact  on  these  terms: 
that  the  two  brothers  should  hire  for  themselves  a 
house  at  common  expense,  and  that,  while  the  elder 
should  devote  himself  to  the  family  affairs,  the 
younger  should  enjoy  his  liberty  to  study. 

"Accordingly,"  says  Beza,  "I  lived  one  year  and 
then  a  second  in  by  far  the  most  blessed  manner,  since 
I  lacked  neither  leisure,  nor  any  kind  of  teachers,  nor 
-abundance  of  means,  nor,  in  fine,  the  inclination  to 
master  those  studies  which,  as  you  know,  have  pleased 
me  supremely." 

The  untimely,  if  not  altogether  unexpected,  death 
of  his  brother  broke  rudely  in  upon  Beza's  delight. 
This  blow  recalled  to  the  father's  mind  his  former 
purposes  regarding  his  son,  and  caused  him  again 
to  insist  upon  a  final  renunciation  of  the  scholarly 
life  to  which  Theodore  had  hitherto  devoted 
himself. 

"  I  am  weighed  down,"  said  Pierre,  "  by  a  great  mass 
of  affairs,  and  have  reached  an  advanced  age.  It  is  but 
just  and  fair  that  you,  my  son,  upon  whom  all  my  hopes 
are  fixed,  should  assume  the  burden.  Yield  at  length 
and  consult  your  own  best  interests  and  the  interests  of 
your  friends,  and  give  up  those  empty  and  profitless 
studies  which  you  have  pursued  for  so  many  years." 


20  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Theodore,  however,  was  not  convinced  that  the 
path  urged  upon  him  was  that  which  he  ought  to 
take,  and  resisted  with  great  determination.  Con- 
scious of  the  possession  of  abilities  for  which  the  life 
of  routine  in  a  profession  which  he  detested  offered 
no  scope,  he  felt  that  to  yield  would  be  to  make 
shipwreck  of  all  higher  aspirations.  In  this  he  was 
doubtless  encouraged  by  the  judgments  which  his 
associates  had  passed  upon  his  literary  powers,  al- 
though not  even  their  most  sanguine  anticipations 
could  have  forecast  the  particular  sphere  of  his  bril- 
liant successes.  It  is  difficult,  however,  in  view  of 
the  great  part  which  Beza  was  destined  to  play  in 
the  religious  and  political  history  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  to  close  our  eyes  to  the  providential  guid- 
ance of  his  mind  and  will  in  the  strenuous  opposi- 
tion which  he  instituted  and  maintained  to  forces 
that  might  have  made  him  possibly  a  counsellor  of 
parliament  conspicuous  for  intelligence  and  for 
greater  freedom  from  class  prejudice  than  his  fel- 
lows, but  exercising  no  appreciable  influence  upon 
the  great  movements  of  the  intellectual  and  religious 
thought  of  his  generation. 

How  long  the  obstinate  contest  between  father 
and  son  might  have  lasted,  and  to  what  lengths  the 
former  might  have  gone  in  his  indignation  at  the 
disappointment  of  his  cherished  hopes,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  enlightened  views  and  calm  judgment 
of  the  Abbe  de  Froidmont,  are  questions  that  we 
cannot  answer.  That  sagacious  kinsman,  who  had 
more  than  once  before  given  useful  advice,  being 
now  chosen,  by  mutual  consent  of  the  parties,  to 


1548]  Beza  in  Paris  21 

the  honourable  office  of  umpire,  gave  a  decision 
which  if  it  did  not  satisfy  his  nephew's  desires,  at 
least  seemed  to  him  slightly  more  equitable  than  the 
course  hitherto  prescribed.  "  Inasmuch  as  Theo- 
dore is  so  averse  to  the  practice  of  the  law,"  he 
said,  "  let  him  indeed  continue  in  the  course  upon 
which  he  has  entered ;  let  him,  however,  become 
the  client  of  some  prince  or  magnate  from  whom 
there  may  be  hope  of  deriving  some  fruit  of  his 
labours."  Sooth  to  say,  the  line  of  life  suggested 
by  his  uncle  was  scarcely  less  repugnant  to  the 
young  and  ambitious  student  than  that  which  his 
father  would  have  had  him  follow. 

"  What  do  you  fancy  that  my  feelings  were  then,  my 
friend  Pompon  ?  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Was  I  to  go  to  the 
court,  I  who  had  learned  neither  how  to  dissemble  nor 
how  to  flatter  ?  Was  I  to  embrace  this  mode  of  life  sub- 
ject to  so  many  tumults,  I  who  hoped  to  live  in  such 
honourable  leisure  ?  " 

Yet  yield  he  must,  for  fear  that  worse  might  befall 
him.  He  had  chosen,  or  there  had  been  chosen  for 
him,  the  Bishop  of  Coutances  as  the  patron  under 
whose  auspices  he  was  to  enter  upon  the  life  of  a 
courtier;  he  had  in  fact  just  been  introduced  to 
the  palace  and  household  of  this  "  magnate,"  when 
circumstances  occurred  which,  as  was  thought  at  the 
time,  merely  deferred  until  a  future  occasion  the 
execution  of  his  uncle's  designs,  but  which  in 
reality,  as  it  turned  out,  altogether  frustrated  them. 
In  his  contemporaneous  correspondence  the  cir- 
cumstances in  question  are  somewhat  vaguely  de- 


22  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

signated  as  the  **  storms  of  wars  "  ;  but  as  the  letter 
containing  the  expression  is  unfortunately  without 
the  date  of  the  year,  it  is  perhaps  impossible  to  as- 
certain definitely  the  political  or  military  events 
particularly  referred  to.  Meanwhile  Beza  gladly 
welcomed  any  respite  from  the  employment  to 
which  he  had  so  lately  deemed  himself  condemned. 

"  Thus  has  it  come  to  pass,"  he  gleefully  wrote,  "  that 
I  have  returned  to  my  former  manner  of  life,  in  which, 
unless  some  greater  force  shall  hinder,  I  shall  assuredly 
grow  old.  And  I  feel  confident  that  at  length  I  shall 
leave  to  posterity  the  proof  that  Beza  did  not  live  utterly 
idle,  albeit  he  lived  in  the  greatest  leisure."  ' 

The  last  words,  written  in  the  confidence  of  friend- 
ship, give  us  the  clue  to  the  employments  and  aspira- 
tions of  this  somewhat  obscure  period  of  Beza's  life. 
His  was  no  trifler's  existence.  If  he  daily  spent 
some  hours  in  the  company  of  a  select  number  of 
wits  of  his  own  age,  and  if  he  may  occasionally  have 
seemed  to  have  no  higher  aim  than  by  intercourse 
with  them  to  strive  to  give  a  keener  edge  to  his  in- 
cisive speech,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  his  time  was 
devoted  to  more  serious  efforts.  Year  by  year, 
partly  alone,  partly  with  the  help  of  the  numerous 
excellent  teachers  whom  he  had  at  command,  he 
was  making  progress  in  the  departments  of  study 
upon  which  he  had  already  entered,  and  entering 
fields  previously  unexplored.  All  this  was  to  be  no 
less  serviceable  to  him  in  that  future  of  which  he 
could  as  yet  have  had   scarcely  even  a  suspicion, 

'  Beza  to  Pompon.  Paris.  July  19,  s.  a.     Baum,  i.,  App.,  92. 


1548]  Beza  in  Paris  23 

than  the  literary  acumen  which  attrition  with  men 
of  similar  tastes  and  gifts  was  conferring  upon  him. 
There  seem  to  have  been  some  fruits  early  in  his 
residence  at  Paris  of  the  legal  studies  imposed  upon 
him  by  his  father,  or  undertaken  from  a  sense  of 
compunction  at  seeming  to  pay  little  or  no  respect 
to  that  father's  wishes.  A  casual  reference  made 
in  the  postscript  of  one  of  his  letters  '  to  a  treatise 
on  the  Salic  Law,  that  might  be  expected  to  issue 
from  the  press  within  a  few  months,  and  "  under 
his  auspices,"  points  apparently  to  some  results  of 
attention  given  to  the  theory  of  law,  which  was  less 
repugnant  to  him  than  its  practice.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  there  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  no  evidence  that  the 
book  or  booklet  in  question  ever  actually  appeared. 
In  the  same  letter  the  writer  speaks  of  devoting 
hours  to  the  reading  of  Hebrew.  Occasionally,  too, 
he  varied  his  work  by  perfecting  his  acquaintance 
with  mathematics.  To  Latin  and  Greek  he  undoubt- 
edly still  gave  great  attention.  If  the  foundations 
of  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  latter  tongue  had 
been  well  laid  while  he  was  under  the  instruction  of 
Wolmar,  there  must  have  been  built  up  during  the 
years  of  private  study  at  Paris  that  superstructure 
of  close  and  intimate  familiarity  with  the  idiom  of 
the  language  which  stood  him  in  good  stead  both  ai 
Lausanne  and  at  Geneva.  It  was  evidently  a  long 
course  of  preliminary  reading  that  qualified  him  for 
the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  professor  of  Greek  in 


'  It  is  the  fourth  of  the  eight  letters  which  Professor  Baum  was  so 
fortunate  as  to  discover  in  the  Sinimler  Collection  of  the  Library  of 
Zurich.     See  Baum,   Theodor  Beza,  i.,  33. 


24  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  college  of  Lausanne — a  position  which  he  ac- 
cepted soon  after  his  expatriation,  and  which  he 
retained  for  the  next  nine  or  ten  years — as  well  as 
for  his  work  of  Biblical  interpretation. 

In  the  enjoyment  of  means  and  of  leisure,  now  at 
length  secured,  to  gratify  to  the  full  his  literary  and 
studious  tastes,  it  might  have  seemed  that  Beza 
must  possess  everything  essential  to  his  happiness. 
It  was  not  so.  I  have  already  referred  to  the  unrest 
of  his  soul  from  the  moment  of  his  return  to  Paris, 
and  to  the  distinct  purpose  which  he  had  soon 
formed  to  break  loose  in  due  time  from  everything 
detaining  him  in  a  land  where  he  could  not  profess 
the  doctrines  with  which  he  had  become  imbued 
from  association  with  Wolmar, —  the  purpose  to 
direct  his  steps  to  a  country  in  which  liberty  of  con- 
science reigned,  and  where,  in  company  with  his  old 
preceptor,  he  might  live  an  ideal  existence.  This 
purpose  he  never  renounced.  Neither,  on  the 
other  hand,  did  the  allurements  by  which  he  was 
surrounded  lose  their  force.  Between  the  higher 
and  the  lower  motives,  the  struggle  in  Beza's  soul 
was  severe  and  protracted.'  I  pass  on  to  the  events 
in  which  the  conflict  issued. 

Of  these  the  first  was  his  secret  marriage. 

Beza  had  not  taken  the  first  step  toward  becoming 
a  priest.  He  had  never  assumed  the  vows  that  con- 
demn to  a  life  of  celibacy.  Yet,  in  accordance  with 
an   abuse   against  which   complaints  had   certainly 


'  For  a  full  translation  of  Beza's  confession,  whose  pathos  is 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  Saint  Augustine  himself,  see  his  letter  in 
the  Appendix, 


1548]       '  Beza  in  Paris  25 

been  numerous  enough,  but  which  no  complaints 
had  been  potent  enough  to  eradicate,  he  was  enjoy- 
ing, although  a  layman,  the  income  of  more  than 
one  ecclesiastical  foundation.  He  was  flattered  by 
the  hope  of  obtaining  still  greater  resources  of  the 
same  kind  in  future.  There  were  many  other 
favourites  of  fortune  that  found  themselves  in  a 
similar  situation.  The  world  was  so  used  to  the 
sight  of  laymen  fattening  upon  the  Church's  pas- 
tures, that  the  unthinking  were  not  even  greatly 
startled  when  the  intruder  was  the  most  unfit  of 
men  for  the  discharge  of  sacred  functions,  possibly 
as  unblushing  in  the  immorality  of  his  life  as  the 
libertine  Abbe  de  Brantome  of  a  later  period.  They 
were  shocked  only  when  the  lay  abbot  married  and 
shut  himself  off  from  the  possibility  of  ever  becom- 
ing a  clergyman. 

Claudine  Desnoz  was  the  name  of  the  young 
woman  upon  whom  Beza's  choice  fell.  She  was  of 
a  reputable  family,  but,  as  Beza  himself  admits,  of 
a  family  inferior  in  station  to  his  own.  In  view 
of  the  fact  that  her  husband,  who  was  by  no  means 
indifferent  to  matters  of  the  kind,  has  nothing  to 
say  of  her  gentle  birth,  we  may  well  dismiss  as  pure 
fictions  such  statements  as  that  she  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  an  advocate  of  Paris,  or  the  sister  of  a  bishop 
of  Grenoble.^  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  the 
marriage  took  place  apparently  at  some  time  in  the 
year  1544,  and  the  witnesses  were  two  of  Beza's 
most  intimate  and  honourable  friends,  both  of  them 
jurists   of  distinction,    Laurent  de  Normandie  and 

'  Bayle'ij  Dictionary,  in  the  article  "  Beza," 


26  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Jean  Crespin.  Of  the  latter  I  shall  have  more  to 
say  presently.  As  to  the  marriage  itself,  much  as 
the  secrecy  with  which  it  was  entered  into  must  be 
condemned,  the  union,  duly  ratified  as  it  was  four 
years  later  in  a  public  ceremonial,  proved  a  har- 
monious and  congenial  one  that  lasted  until  the 
death  of  Claudine. 

In  later  times  Beza  proved  himself  no  irresolute 
man.  At  the  present  time,  whether  it  should  be 
said  that  the  desirability  of  earthly  possessions  and 
ease  and  leisure  to  pursue  his  studies  with  an  as- 
siduity that  had  won  him  among  his  companions  the 
playful  appellation  of  '*  the  new  philosopher," 
loomed  up  before  his  eyes  in  exaggerated  propor- 
tions, or  that  the  far  more  exceeding  value  of  the 
favour  of  God  and  of  a  clear  conscience  void  of 
offence  with  Him  and  with  men  had  not  yet  be- 
come to  him  a  living  reality,  he  long  remained  in  a 
pitiable  condition  of  uncertainty,  not  so  much  re- 
specting what  he  ought  to  do  as  respecting  what 
he  could  bring  himself  to  do.  Nothing  short  of  a 
miracle  seemed  necessary  to  draw  him  out  of  the 
mire  in  which,  to  use  his  own  expression,  he  found 
himself  caught,  unable  to  come  to  a  definite  con- 
clusion ;  with  all  his  relations  prompting  him  to 
adopt  some  certain  course  of  life  from  which  he 
might  acquire  wealth  and  distinction,  and  his  kindly 
uncle  offering  him  the  prospect  of  still  greater 
property,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  conscience 
pointed  him  in  a  different  direction  and  his  wife 
pressed  him  again  and  again  to  execute  his  long-de- 
ferred purpose  to  acknowledge  her  before  the  world. 


I54S]  Beza  in  Paris  27 

That  miracle  was  wrought  in  his  conversion,  which 
dates  from  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1548. 

Before  speaking  of  this  turning-point  in  his  life,  it 
is  appropriate  that  I  should  speak  of  the  publication, 
early  in  the  same  year,  of  the  collection  of  his  poems 
which  came  to  be  styled  his  Juvenilia.  These  cele- 
brated pieces  belong  altogether  to  his  youth,  that 
is,  to  the  period  in  which  he  was  in  no  sense  a  Re- 
former, but,  instead,  a  brilliant  and  ambitious  devo- 
tee of  belles-lettres.  Though  many  of  them  had 
circulated  freely  among  the  author's  friends  and  ad- 
mirers, they  had  never  been  given  to  the  public 
through  the  press. 

It  was  evidently  not  without  some  scarcely  con- 
cealed satisfaction  at  the  neatness  of  his  work,  that 
Beza  dedicated  these  first-fruits  of  his  poetical  efforts 
to  his  old  preceptor  Melchior  Wolmar.  Beza  was 
twenty-eight  or  twenty-nine  years  of  age.  Neither 
the  young  man  who  dedicated,  nor  the  old  man  who 
accepted  the  dedication  with  obvious  delight,  saw 
anything  amiss  in  these  poems. 

Twelve  years  more  elapsed,  and  Beza,  now  be- 
come a  man  of  forty,  an  avowed  Protestant  and  a 
zealous  Reformer,  had  occasion  to  dedicate  to  his 
former  teacher  a  second  volume  of  an  entirely  differ- 
ent character,  which  he  entitled  a  Confession  of  tJie 
Cliristian  Faith,  He  assigned  two  motives  for  so 
doing.  The  one  was  that  he  might  return  to  Wol- 
mar some  harvest  from  the  field  which  Wolmar  had 
sown;  the  other,  that  he  might  have  the  opportun- 
ity of  offering  his  master  a  book  infinitely  better  and 
more  holy  than  the  poems  which,  it  seems,  Wolmar 


28  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

had  urged  him  to  republish.      To  this  statement  he 
appended  a  few  pathetic  words : 

"  As  respects  those  poems,  who  is  there  that  either  has 
condemned  them  more  than  I,  their  unhappy  author,  or 
that  detests  them  more  than  I  do  to-day  ?  Would,  there- 
fore, that  they  might  at  length  be  buried  in  perpetual 
oblivion!  And  may  the  Lord* grant  that,  since  it  is  im- 
possible that  what  has  been  done  should  be  undone,  the 
persons  who  shall  read  writings  of  mine  far  different 
from  those  poems  may  rather  congratulate  me  upon  the 
greatness  of  God's  goodness  to  me,  than  accuse  .him  who 
voluntarily  makes  confession  and  deprecates  the  fault  of 
his  youth."  * 

These  are  the  brave  and  honest  words  of  a  man 
true  to  his  convictions  and  more  anxious  to  set 
himself  right  at  the  bar  of  his  own  conscience  than 
to  forestall  the  adverse  judgment  of  others.  For, 
in  point  of  fact,  learned  and  cultured  men,  and 
none  more  than  the  adherents  of  the  other  faith,  ap- 
plauded the  sprightliness  of  his  verses  and  never 
thought  of  condemning  them  as  wanton,  certainly 
never  gave  expression  to  such  a  thought.  Thus  the 
grave  and  learned  President  Etienne  Pasquier,  in  his 
great  work  on  The  Researches  of  France,'^  remarked 
that  "  Beza  in  his  youth  composed  divers  French 
and  Latin  poems  which  were  very  favourably  re- 
ceived throughout  all  France,  and  particularly  his 
Latin  epigrams,  wherein  he  celebrated  his  mistress 
under  the  name  of  Candida."     "  In  1548,"  he  adds, 

'  Dedication  of  Confessio  Fidei,  in  fine. 

^  Les  Recherches  de  la  France  (ed.  of  162 1),  649. 


1548]  Beza  in  Paris  29 

"  when  he  changed  his  religion,  he  made  a  show  of 
despising  them." 

Literary  productions  upon  w^hich  their  author 
himself  sets  a  low  estimate  have  in  ordinary  cases  a 
fair  chance  of  being  forgotten  by  others  naturally 
less  interested  in  preserving  them.  The  odium  tJico- 
logiciini  of  which  Beza  was  the  object  may  safely  be 
credited  with  being  the  cause  of  the  survival  and 
celebrity  of  the  Juvenilia,  In  fact,  the  outrageous 
misrepresentation  of  enemies,  determined  to  discover 
in  what  was  most  innocent  untold  depths  of  deprav- 
ity, compelled  the  very  author  who  had  vainly 
sought  to  consign  them  to  forgetfulness,  himself  to 
bring  them  out  again  in  subsequent  editions,  so  that 
he  might  be  able  to  show  to  the  world  what  were  in 
reality  these  lighter  poems  so  maligned  by  men  who 
had  a  manifest  purpose  in  their  inventions.  The 
contrast  between  the  Juvenilia  and  the  sacred  drama 
o{  Abraham  Sacrijiant,  or  the  metrical  translation  of 
the  Psalms  of  David,  might  be  unedifying  enough; 
but,  at  least,  the  republication  was  sufficient  to  cast 
to  the  winds  those  foul  calumnies  that  breed  most 
readily  in  darkness  and  ignorance. 

What,  then,  were  these  much-abused  epigrams  ? 
Just  such  poems  as  a  very  young  man — almost  all 
of  them  were  written  before  Beza's  twentieth  year, 
although  they  were  published  some  years  later — 
might  write;  especially  if  that  young  man  were  pos- 
sessed of  a  certain  skill  in  composing  verses  and 
were  much  encouraged  thereto  by  the  applause  that 
welcomed  his  first  efforts;  most  of  all  if,  wielding 
a  facile  pen,  he  were  uncommonly  learned  for  his 


30  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

age  in  classical  literature,  admiring  Virgil,  adoring 
Ovid,  and  conscious  of  no  higher  ambition,  so  far  as 
style  was  concerned,  than  to  spend  his  hours  of  re- 
laxation in  imitating  and  endeavouring  to  equal  or, 
if  possible,  excel  the  wonderful  elegance  of  Catullus. 
It  was  the  fashion  of  the  age  to  indulge  in  a  freedom 
of  language  which  offends  a  more  modern  sense  of 
propriety,  but  by  no  means  proves  that  the  life  of 
the  writer  was  impure.  Indeed,  the  poet  indignantly 
protests  against  such  an  inference  and  confidently 
appeals  to  the  testimony  of  those  that  knew  him 
intimately  to  establish  the  contrary. 

"  There  are  among  my  poems,"  he  wrote,  "  a  few  that 
are  written  in  somewhat  too  free  a  tone,  that  is,  in  imita- 
tion of  Catullus  and  Ovid;  but  I  had  not  the  slightest 
fear  at  that  time,  nor  do  I  now  fear,  lest  those  that  knew 
me  as  I  was  should  gauge  my  morals  by  those  playful  in- 
ventions of  my  imagination."  ^ 

On  this  score  nothing  more  need  be  said  than  that 
not  many  of  the  Juvenilia  are  open  to  the  charge 
of  indelicacy,  while  many  are  above  reproach;  none 
more  charming  and  innocent  than  the  celebrated 
poem  addressed  to  a  fictitious  Audebert,  a  com- 
panion and  equal  in  years,  wherein  the  rival  claims 
of  friendship  and  love  are  poetically  set  forth.  It 
has  been  the  misfortune  of  Beza,  as  it  is  a  striking 
illustration  of  the  perverse  imaginations  of  those 
who  will  see  evil  in  everything  on  which  they  cast 
their  jaundiced  eyes,  that  this  most  graceful  and  de- 


*  PedicJ^tion  of  Confessio  Fidei,  page  3. 


1548]  Beza  in  Paris  3^ 

lightful  of  lyrics  has  been  furiously  attacked  as  if  it 
were  a  shameless  avowal  of  unnatural  passion.' 

In  sum,  it  may  be  safely  said  that  poems  which 
were  read  and  admired  by  the  cultured  throughout 
France  would  never  have  met  with  censure  or  pro- 
voked controversy,  had  it  not  been  that  their  author, 
subsequently  to  their  publication  and  many  years 
later  than  their  composition,  was  converted  to  other 
and  worthier  views  of  life  and  its  great  objects. 
They  belong  to  a  stage  of  Beza's  life  with  which  he 
had  completely  broken  when,  under  the  sway  of 
strong  religious  convictions,  he  turned  his  steps 
toward  Switzerland ;  and  so  far  from  seeking  for  a 
life  of  quiet  and  self-indulgence,  deliberately  re- 
nounced a  future  of  ease  for  the  prospect  of  com- 
parative poverty,  of  conflict,  and  of  peril. 

'  See  the  poem  "  Theodorus  Beza,  de  sua  in  Candidam  et  Aude- 
bertum  Benevolentia."  Baum,  Theodor  Beza,  i.,  loi,  I02,  and  the 
edition  of  the  Juvenilia  by  A.  Machard  (Paris,  1879),  234-236. 


CHAPTER  III 

CONVERSION  OF  BEZA— DEPARTURE  FROM  FRANCE 
— CALL  TO  LAUSANNE — "ABRAHAM'S  SACRI- 
FICE" 

1 548-1 5 50 

THE  conversion  of  Theodore  Beza  occurred  a  few 
months  after  the  pubHcation  of  the  Jiroenilia 
and  in  connection  with  an  iUness  of  so  serious  a 
nature  that  his  Hfe  was  for  a  time  in  doubt.  Never 
had  man  greater  reason  to  regard  an  apparent  ca- 
lamity as  a  blessing  in  disguise.  He  rose  from  the 
bed  upon  which  disease  had  cast  him  with  views  and 
aims  totally  different  from  those  which  he  had  cher- 
ished until  then.  The  same  letter  that  has  enabled 
us  to  trace  to  some  extent  his  intellectual  develop- 
ment, raises  for  a  moment  the  veil  that  hides  the 
innermost  spiritual  experiences  of  the  man  from  the 
scrutiny  of  his  fellow.  Hours  of  enforced  idleness, 
as  well  as  of  extreme  peril  and  suffering,  were  the 
condition  of  his  gaining  the  first  glimpse  of  his  true 
character  in  God's  sight.  Past  and  present  alike 
seemed  to  arise  and  accuse  him,  and  their  testimony 
could  not  be  silenced  or  refuted.  Turn  his  eyes 
which  way  he  would,  he  found  confronting  him  the 

32 


1548]  His  Conversion  33 

judgment  throne  of  an  offended  Deity.  The  agony- 
was  sharp  and  protracted.  It  was  mercifully  suc- 
ceeded by  a  view  of  the  pardon  extended  to  him  no 
less  distinct  and  beyond  the  realm  of  doubt.  Ab- 
horrence of  his  sins  was  followed  by  petitions  for 
forgiveness,  and  these  by  a  full  consecration  of  his 
powers  to  the  service  of  his  Saviour.  From  extreme 
darkness  verging  upon  despair,  he  emerged  into  a 
brilliant  and  enduring  light. 

Clearness  of  religious  conviction  led  to  decided 
and  instantaneous  action.  Old  objections  and  ob- 
stacles vanished  or  were  brushed  aside.  Theodore 
Beza  once  thoroughly  convinced  of  duty  was  not 
the  man  to  postpone  action,  or,  in  the  apostle's 
v/ords,  to  be  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision. 
He  did  not  even  wait  until  he  was  fully  restored  to 
health,  but  while  still  far  from  strong  carried  into 
effect  the  resolution  which  he  had  formed  of  betak- 
ing himself  to  a  land  where  he  could  freely  make 
profession  of  his  religious  belief.  He  gathered  to- 
gether such  of  his  property  as  he  could  carry  with 
him,  and,  not  announcing  his  purpose  to  any  of  his 
friends  or  relatives,  made  his  way,  accompanied  by 
his  wife,  and  under  the  assumed  name,  it  is  said,  of 
Thibaud  de  May,'  to  the  city  of  Geneva.  He 
reached  it  on  the  24th  of  October,  1548. 

Such  in  brief  is  Beza's  account  of  the  decisive  step 
of  his  life — no  precipitate  and  enforced  flight  of  a 
villain  unwhipped  of  justice,  a  flight  rendered  neces- 
sary by  flagitious  crimes  committed,  as  malignant 

'  Florimond    de    Raymond,    Hist,   de   Oriti,    Progressii  et  Ruina 
Jliercs.  (ed.  of  1614),  ii,,  49S. 
3 


34  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

and  mendacious  calumniators  subsequently  and 
down  to  our  times  have  dared  to  assert  with 
unblushing  effrontery,  but  the  honourable  with- 
drawal of  an  honest  man  from  a  country  with  which 
were  bound  up  all  his  prospects  of  preferment  and 
of  worldly  prosperity,  that  in  a  foreign  land  he 
might  seek  and  obtain,  along  possibly  with  the  dis- 
comforts of  poverty,  the  freedom  to  worship  God  in 
accordance  with  the  dictates  of  his  conscience. 
One  of  his  first  acts  on  reaching  Geneva  was  to  pro- 
cure the  public  and  solemn  recognition  of  his  mar- 
riage with  Claudine  Desnoz. 

His  future  was  all  unknown  to  him.  He  possessed 
no  handicraft  by  means  of  which  the  emigrant  may 
hope,  as  soon  as  he  has  gained  a  slight  footing  in  a 
foreign  land,  to  secure  subsistence.  Of  learned  and 
unpractical  scholars  there  was  an  abundance  both  in 
Switzerland  and  in  Germany.  Many  of  these  were 
penniless  and  a  burden  upon  their  hosts.  We  have 
no  reason  to  believe  that  this  was  the  case  with 
Theodore  Beza,  who  in  his  quiet  removal  from  his 
native  land  may  well  be  supposed  to  have  been  able 
to  bring  with  him  all  the  funds  necessary  to  meet 
the  temporary  needs  at  least  of  himself  and  his  wife. 
But  his  open  renunciation  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  cut  off  every  channel  of  supply  that  had 
flowed  so  freely  hitherto,  save  such  as  came  from 
the  paternal  estates;  and  the  anger  of  father,  uncle, 
and  other  kinsmen  might  well  be  expected  to  inter- 
rupt, if  not  permanently  end,  all  expectations  from 
this  quarter.  Under  these  circumstances,  Beza's 
thoughts  at  first  turned  to  a  pursuit  which,  although 


1548]  He  Leaves  France  35 

not  strictly  a  learned  profession,  had  been  taken  up 
by  some  of  the  most  eminent  scholars  of  the  day. 
I  refer  to  the  printing  of  books,  which,  in  the  hands 
of  the  Aldi  at  Venice  and  the  Etiennes  or  Stephens 
of  his  own  native  land,  had  attained,  or  was  soon  to 
attain,  the  distinction  of  ranking  with  the  fine  arts. 
Jean  Crespin,  a  native  of  Arras,  came  to  Geneva  at 
the  same  time  with  Beza.  They  were  men  of  about 
the  same  age.  Both  had  studied  law,  and  both  had 
been  affected  by  the  "  new  doctrines,"  as  they  were 
called.  Crespin,  in  particular,  had  witnessed  in  the 
city  of  Paris,  where  he  was  admitted  as  an  advocate 
of  the  court  of  Parliament,  the  triumphant  death  of 
at  least  one  Protestant  martyr.  The  constancy  of 
Claude  Le  Peintre,  a  goldsmith,  burnt  alive  on  the 
Place  Maubert,  in  1540,  seems  to  have  led  Crespin 
to  the  distinct  espousal  of  the  tenets  of  the  Reformed 
Churches.'  Similarity  of  views  brought  the  young 
men  together,  and  they  naturally  conceived  the  idea 
of  establishing  at  Geneva,  on  the  very  frontiers  of 
France,  a  great  printing  establishment  from  which 
books  and  publications  of  various  kinds  in  favour  of 
the  Gospel  might  be  issued  and  circulated  far  and 
near  throughout  the  kingdom.  The  project  as  a 
joint  enterprise  finally  fell  through  ;  for  there  was 
in  store  for  Beza  a  career  of  usefulness  of  quite  a 
different  character  and  better  suited  to  his  resplend- 
ent abilities.  But  Jean  Crespin  did  not  abandon  his 
purpose.      His  plans  were  realised  within  a  few  years 

'  See  art.  "  Crespin  "  in  Haag,  La  France  Protestante,  iv,,  886, 
Cre.spin  describes  Le  Peintre's  martyrdom  in  his  great  work  of 
which  the  title  is  given  in  the  next  note  (ed,  uf  1560),  fol,  00. 


3^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

so  successfully  that  not  only  did  his  presses  gain  a 
celebrity  for  the  beauty  of  their  products  only  second 
to  the  fame  of  the  presses  of  the  great  printers  I 
have  named,  but  became  instrumental  in  giving  a 
great  impulse  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation. 
His  own  personal  activity  as  an  author  did  good 
service  in  his  great  martyrology,  which,  in  success- 
ive editions  and  under  different  titles,  chronicled 
"  the  Acts  and  Monuments  of  the  martyrs  who  from 
Wyclif  and  Huss  until  this  our  age  have  steadfastly 
sealed  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  with  their  blood  in 
Germany,  France,  England,  Flanders,  Italy,  and 
Spain  itself."  It  was  a  great  historical  and  bio- 
graphical work,  not  indeed  free  from  occasional 
errors — errors  that  may  well  be  excused,  in  view  of 
the  difficulty  and  dangers  encountered  in  the  collec- 
tion of  so  great  a  number  of  particular  facts  from 
widely  different  sources  and  even  from  well-guarded 
prisons  and  places  of  execution — but  a  work,  never- 
theless, for  the  most  part,  wonderfully  exact  and 
trustworthy,  with  which  Crespin  is  to  be  congratu- 
lated for  having  linked  his  name  for  all  time.' 

^  The  first  impression  was  in  French  and  was  entitled  "  Le  Livre 
des  Martyrs,  qui  est  un  recueil  de  plusieurs  Martyrs  qui  ont  endure 
la  mort  pour  le  nom  de  nostre  Seigneur  Jesus  Christ,  depuis  Jean 
Hus  jusques  a  cette  annee  presente,  1554."  The  author's  manu- 
script originally  had  the  title  of  "  Le  Livre  des  Saints";  but  the 
Great  Council  of  Geneva,  in  authorising  its  publication,  stipulated 
for  obvious  reasons  that  "  Saints'"  should  be  changed  to  "  Alartyrs."'' 
La  France  Protestante,  iv.,  Sgo.  I  quote  in  the  present  work  the 
Latin  version  made  by  Baduel  under  Crespin's  own  eyes,  printed  at 
his  own  presses,  and  therefore  of  equal  authority  with  the  French 
my  own  copy  being  of  the  rare  second  edition  :  Actiones  et  Moni- 
menta  Martyrum^  Geneva,  1560.     See  Bibliography. 


1 548]  He  Leaves  France  37 

But  while  it  may  not  have  been  very  long  before 
Beza  definitely  renounced  the  career  to  which  Cres- 
pin  would  gladly  have  welcomed  him,  it  did  not  at 
once  appear  to  what  department  of  activity  a  man 
of  such  marked  abilities  should  devote  himself. 
For  manifold  were  the  advantages  he  possessed. 
His  personal  appearance  was  striking.  He  was  of 
good  stature  and  well  proportioned.  His  counten- 
ance was  very  pleasing.  Refinement  was  stamped 
upon  his  features.  His  whole  bearing  was  that  of  a 
man  accustomed  to  the  best  society.  His  manners 
at  once  conciliated  the  favour  of  the  great  and  found 
him  friends  among  the  gentle  sex.  This  is  the  testi- 
mony both  of  the  inimical  historian  of  TJie  Origin^ 
Progress,  and  Ruin  of  the  Heresies  of  Our  Time,  Flori- 
mond  de  Raemond,  and  of  the  Jesuit  Maimbourg.' 
The  latter  writer  furthermore  volunteers  the  state- 
ment that  it  was  undeniable  that  Beza's  intellect 
was  of  a  very  high  order,  being  keen,  ready,  acute, 
sprightly,  and  bright,  for  he  had  taken  pains  to  cul- 
tivate it  by  the  study  of  belles-lettres  and  particu- 
larly of  poetry,  wherein  he  excelled  both  in  French 
and  in  Latin.  To  which  very  handsome  tribute  the 
critic  somewhat  grudgingly  adds  a  concession  that 
Beza  knew  a  little  philosophy  and  jurisprudence, 
learned  in  the  schools  of  Orleans.  Allowance  being 
made  in  the  last  sentence  for  the  strong  prejudice  of 
the  partisan  historian,  the  portrait  may  be  accepted 
as  sufficiently  accurate,  as  it  is  unexpectedly  favour- 
able. 


'  Hist,   de   Ortu,  Progressu   et  Ruina   Hcrr.  (ed.    1614),   ii.,    C32. 
Maimbourg,  Ilisloire  du  Calviuisnie  (ed.  16S2),  217. 


3^  Theodore  Beza  [151^ 

That  Theodore  Beza  was  welcomed  with  delight 
by  John  Calvin  need  scarcely  be  said.  The  great 
Reformer,  now  at  the  height  of  his  renown  and  use- 
fulness, had  never  forgotten  the  promising  lad,  ten 
years  his  junior,  who  had  studied  under  the  same 
teacher  and  of  whose  singular  brilliancy  that  teacher 
had  never  tired  of  making  mention.  And  now  that, 
after  a  long  period  of  hesitation,  Beza,  by  a  single 
bold  step,  had  broken  with  the  past  and,  sacrificing 
rank,  ease,  and  every  worldly  consideration,  had 
thrown  himself  in  for  life  or  for  death  with  the  re- 
formatory movement  to  which  Calvin  had  devoted 
his  own  magnificent  powers,  the  joy  and  the  thank- 
fulness to  Heaven  with  which  the  latter  welcomed 
the  new  recruit  were  mingled  with  lively  curiosity 
respecting  the  particular  work  which  Providence 
had  reserved  for  him  to  accomplish. 

As  I  have  said,  that  work  did  not  at  once  disclose 
itself  to  view.  The  enfeebled  condition  of  Beza,  but 
lately  risen  from  a  very  critical  illness,  did  not  in- 
cline him  to  great  haste  in  the  search.  Thus  it  was 
that  after  a  few  months'  stay  in  Geneva  he  fulfilled 
what  had  for  years  been  a  strong  wish  of  his  heart, 
and  made  a  journey  to  southern  Germany  to  see 
his  old  preceptor,  Melchior  Wolmar,  at  Tubingen. 
Pupil  and  teacher  seem  not  to  have  met  since  Wol- 
mar made  Beza  a  brief  visit,  early  in  the  latter's  stay 
at  Paris,  when  the  German  was  sent  on  a  diplomatic 
errand  by  the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg  to  the  French 
court.  That  was  ten  years  ago;  but  the  intensity 
of  the  mutual  love  of  Wolmar  and  Beza  had  suffered 
no    abatement.     The    greetings  were   as   kind   and 


1549]  Call  to  Lausanne  39 

affectionate  as  could  be  imagined.  Yet  Beza  made 
no  attempt  to  carry  out  his  early  dream  of  study 
and  leisure  in  Wolmar's  neighbourhood.  It  must 
be  supposed  that  scholarly  idleness  had  lost  its 
charm  for  a  man  who  had  now  acquired  a  new  earn- 
estness of  purpose;  and  in  the  troubled  state  of 
Germany  at  the  moment,  Beza  saw  no  opportunities 
beyond  the  Rhine  to  further  the  work  to  which  he 
had  devoted  his  life. 

On  his  way  back  to  Geneva  Beza  naturally  passed 
through  Lausanne,  the  most  important  place  in 
what  at  the  present  time  constitutes  the  Canton  of 
Vaud,  one  of  the  members  of  the  Helvetic  Union. 
At  Lausanne  he  met  Pierre  Viret,  himself  a  native 
of  Orbe  in  this  district,  who  after  having  played  an 
important  part  in  the  reformation  of  Geneva,  had  of 
late  been  labouring  for  the  same  cause  in  his  native 
region.  Viret  recogaised  in  Theodore  Beza  the 
very  man  whom  he  needed  as  a  colleague  in  the 
'  Academic,"  or  University,  recently  established  at 
Lausanne,  and  he  begged  him  to  accept  a  chair  in 
this  institution. 

The  Pays  de  Vaud,  as  it  was  styled,  had  long  been 
a  part  of  the  dominions  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  Its 
conquest  by  the  Bernese  was  a  sequence  of  the  cam- 
paign of  1536,  in  the  course  of  which  the  great  Swiss 
Canton  of  Bern  sent  an  army  of  six  thousand  men, 
under  the  celebrated  Naegeli,  to  the  relief  of  Geneva. 
Not  content  with  having  accomplished  the  chief 
object  of  their  undertaking,  and  encouraged  by  the 
absence  of  the  opposition  which  they  had  expected 
to  meet,  the  Bernese  proceeded  to  annex  not  only 


40  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  district  of  Chablais,  on  the  southern  side  of 
Lake  Leman,  but  the  district  of  Gex,  and  the  greater 
part  of  that  of  Vaud,  on  the  western  and  northern 
shores.  At  first  the  rich  bishopric  of  the  "  imperial  " 
city  of  Lausanne  was  exempted  from  seizure.  But 
the  prize  was  too  tempting.  In  a  second  incursion, 
made  only  two  months  later  in  the  same  year,  the 
episcopal  domain  also  was  incorporated  in  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  Canton  of  Bern.  For  his  misfortune 
the  Bishop  of  Lausanne,  Sebastian  de  Montfaucon, 
had  only  himself  to  blame.  He  had  been  so  im- 
prudent as  to  write  from  the  town  of  Fribourg, 
where  he  had  taken  refuge,  a  letter  inciting  the 
people  of  his  diocese  to  take  up  arms  against  the 
Bernese.'  This  was  early  in  1536.  At  once  the  con- 
querors set  about  consolidating  their  power  by  the 
abolition  of  the  three  special  *'  estates  "  of  Lau- 
sanne, as  well  as  of  the  "  estates  "  by  which  Vaud 
was  governed,  and  by  the  substitution  of  a  govern- 
ment administered  through  eight  bailiffs  set  up  at  as 
many  places  in  the  districtc  A  solemn  conference, 
or  colloquy,  was  called  by  the  Lords  of  Bern  and 
met,  in  October,  in  the  cathedral  of  Lausanne  dur- 
ing a  number  of  successive  days.  Here  were  dis- 
cussed ten  theses  drawn  up  by  the  Reformer,  William 
Farel.^  Six  commissioners  of  Bern  and  of  Vaud 
were  present  to  hear  the  debate.     Four  presidents 

'  Daguet,  Histoire  de  la  Confederation  Suisse,  332-334. 

^  It  was  a  disputation  after  the  model  of  that  held  at  Bern  eight 
years  before  (January,  1528),  in  which,  in  like  manner,  there  had  been 
discussed  ten  theses,  or  conclusions,  drawn  up  by  Haller  and  revised 
by  Zwingli.  Schaff,  I/ist.  of  the  Christian  Church,  vii.,  104.  The 
particular  theses,  however,  were  different  in  the  two  case^. 


T549]  Call  to  Lausanne  41 

superintended  the  sessions.  Four  notaries  kept  an 
official  record  of  the  proceedings,  and  read,  as  the 
occasion  arose,  any  chapter  of  Holy  Scripture  that 
might  be  called  for.  The  discussion  covered  in 
general  the  whole  field  of  controversy  between  Pro- 
testantism and  Roman  Catholicism.  It  was  carried 
on  with  vigour,  but  with  more  hopefulness  by  the 
Reformers — Farel,  Viret,  Calvin,  and  others — than 
by  their  opponents.  As  the  Roman  Catholics  en- 
tered upon  the  struggle  reluctantly,  their  first  step 
was  to  submit  a  protest  on  the  part  of  the  chapter  of 
the  cathedral  itself  against  any  disputation.  God  is 
not,  said  they,  the  author  of  dissension  but  of  peace, 
and  discussion  may  be  pernicious  to  the  particular 
church,  which  even  though  gathered  in  Christ's 
name  is  liable  to  fall  into  error.  When  this  protest 
and  other  protests  of  a  like  kind  were  disregarded, 
the  opposition  instituted  was  somewhat  wanting  in 
courage,  as  though  the  result  of  the  matter  were  a 
foregone  conclusion.  Once,  indeed,  Jean  Michodus, 
"  the  Reverend  of  Vevey,"  grew  confident  when 
replying  to  the  Protestant  view  of  the  impossibility 
of  justification  by  works  as  set  forth  by  Saint  Paul, 
and  turned  upon  one  of  the  champions  of  the  other 
side,  Caroli,  formerly  a  Roman  Catholic  doctor  of 
the  Sorbonne,  now  a  professed  Protestant,  although 
later  he  returned  to  his  original  faith. 

"  I  have  heard  many  good  doctors  at  Paris,"  said 
he,  "  but  they  did  not,  like  you,  explain  the  third  chap- 
ter of  Romans  as  referring  to  the  deeds  of  the  law,  but 
only  to  the  ceremonies.     And   you   yourself,   Monsieur 


42  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

our  master  Caroli,  I  have  heard  you  explain  this  passage 
otherwise  than  as  you  expound  it  now." 

To  which  Caroli  could  only  reply: 

"  That  I  expounded  this  passage  as  you  assert,  I  con- 
fess. I  was  then  of  the  number  of  the  persons  of  whom 
Saint  Peter  speaks,  those  ignorant  men  that  wrest  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  because  they  do  not  understand  them. 
So  I  acted,  and  could  not  satisfy  my  own  conscience. 
Then  I  set  myself  to  reading  the  Scriptures  and  compar- 
ing passage  with  passage,  and  praying  God  to  grant  me  a 
true  intelligence.  And  God  has  opened  my  understand- 
ing. He  has  brought  me  to  the  true  knowledge  of  His 
gospel,  as  you  see.  Do  not  therefore  marvel  if  I  have 
changed;  but  rather  do  as  I  have  done,  forsake  every 
doctrine  not  taken  from  the  Scriptures,  and  hold  by 
them  alone."  ^ 

There  was  a  dramatic  episode  at  one  point  when 
the  ground  of  justification  was  under  discussion. 
Fare]  called  for  the  reading  of  the  latter  part  of 
Romans  iii.,  and  exclaimed  :  "  You  see  how  that  it  is 
freely,  without  desert,  without  the  deeds  of  the  law, 
that  a  man  is  justified  ! ' '  Hereupon  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic disputant,  a  physician,  Dr.  Blancherose,  burst 
out:  "  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  so."  At  once  a 
Bible  was  brought  and  laid  before  him,  not  a  printed 
volume  of  modern  times,  whose  authority  might  be 
questioned,  but  an  old  manuscript  Bible  written  on 
parchment,  taken  from  the  library  of  the  Franciscan 

^  The  whole  discussion  is  given  at  great  length  in  the  valuable 
work  of  L.  Vulliemin,  entitled,  Lc  Chroniqueur :  Recucil  His~ 
torique,  315,  foil, 


1549)  Call  to  Lausanne  43 

convent,  and  he  was  bidden  to  read  the  passage  for 
himself.  There  to  his  amazement  were  the  words 
themselves,  and,  though  scarcely  believing  the  evi- 
dence of  his  senses,  he  cried  out:  "  It  is  true'  A 
man  is  justified  by  faith  as  the  holy  Apostle  says  I 
We  are  not  saved  by  works  of  righteousness  which 
we  have  done,  but  according  to  His  mercy,  God 
saved  us!  "  * 

The  commissioners  had  no  judicial  powers.  They 
could  only  report  the  proceedings  of  the  colloquy  to 
the  Lords  of  Bern.  The  answer  of  the  latter  was 
soon  forthcoming.  The  conference  ended  on  Sun- 
day, the  8th  of  October;  on  Thursday,  the  19th,  or 
only  eleven  days  later,  the  decree  was  issued.  By 
virtue  of  their  duty  not  only  to  govern  their  subjects 
in  equity  and  justice,  but  "  to  employ  all  diligence 
and  force  that  these  subjects  may  live  according  to 
God  in  true  and  lively  faith  which  produces  good 
works,"  the  Bernese  proclaimed  their  decision  **  to 
cast  down  all  idolatries,  papal  ceremonies,  traditions, 
and  ordinances  of  men  not  conformable  to  the  Word 
of  God."  In  the  execution  of  this  purpose,  they 
ordered  all  their  bailiffs  and  subordinate  ofificers  to 
make  a  personal  visitation,  immediately  upon  the 
receipt  of  these  letters,  and  command  all  priests, 
deans,  canons,  and  other  churchmen  so  called  at 
once  to  desist  from  all  *'  papistical  ceremonies,  sac- 
rifices, offices,  institutions,  and  traditions,"  as  they 
desired  to  avoid  the  displeasure  of  the  government. 
They  especially  recommended  them  without  delay 
to  overthrow  all  images,  idols,  and  altars,  whether 

*  Ibid.^  p.  322. 


44  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

in  church  or  monastery;  doing  all  this  without  dis- 
order or  tumult.  And  they  bade  all  these  and  their 
other  subjects  to  betake  themselves,  for  the  purpose 
of  hearing  the  Word  of  God,  to  the  nearest  places 
in  which  preachers  had  already  been  appointed  or 
should  hereafter  be  appointed,  and  to  give  them  a 
favourable  audience.  As  to  the  further  dispositions 
respecting  the  so-called  churchmen  and  church 
property,  the  latter  gave  promise,  with  God's  help, 
of  **  so  reasonable  and  holy  a  reformation  that  God 
and  the  world  shall  be  well  pleased."  ' 

Lausanne  had  not  waited  for  the  receipt  of  the 
decision  of  Bern.  No  sooner  was  the  conference 
concluded  than  the  people,  anticipating  the  forth- 
coming decree,  began  in  an  unauthorised  fashion  the 
work  of  destruction  and  spoliation.  The  beautiful 
cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  was  the  first  victim  of  their 
iconoclastic  zeal,  and  a  church  whose  erection  is 
traced  back  to  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury still  bears  testimony  to  the  zeal  of  men  who 
were  resolved  to  remove  every  trace  of  a  supersti- 
tious worship.  Here,  as  elsewhere  throughout 
Vaud,  there  was  no  lack  of  opposition ;  but  the 
overwhelming  influence  of  the  great  Canton  of  Bern 
everywhere  carried  the  day,  and  the  whole  district 
was  ultimately  brought  over  to  a  profession  of  the 
Reformed  doctrines. 

The  immense  store  of  treasures  which  the  cathe- 
dral contained  was  dispersed.'^     A  large  part  found 

'  See  the  text  in  Le  Chroniqtietir,  340,  341. 

^  The  list  of  gold  and  silver  statues,  crosses,  jewelled  reliqua- 
ries,   and    like    precious     possessions     enumerated    in    detail,     in 


1549]  Call  to  Lausanne 


45 


its  way  to  Bern.  But  fortunately  the  government 
of  this  sagacious  republic  saw  the  propriety  of  apply- 
ing no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  ecclesiastical 
property  that  fell  into  its  hands  to  the  promotion  of 
the  higher  intellectual  interests  of  the  region  itself. 
Whether  from  disinterested  motives,  or  from  the 
desire  to  attach  their  new  subjects  to  them  by  self- 
interest,  the  Lords  of  Bern  gave  to  the  communes, 
or  sold  to  them  at  an  insignificant  price,  lands  here- 
tofore belonging  to  churches  and  monastic  founda- 
tions, and  we  are  told  that  the  proceeds  of  this 
property  served  to  form  those  school  and  eleemosyn- 
ary funds  which  the  Vaudois  townships  still  possess 
at  the  present  day.' 

A  fragment  of  the  treasures,  or  of  the  endowment 
of  the  cathedral  of  Lausanne,  was  applied  to  the 
establishment  of  the  "Academic."  The  Bernese  in 
the  capacity  of  lords  paramount  had,  in  accordance 
with  the  prevalent  ideas  of  the  rights  and  duties  of 
the  civil  government,  undertaken  to  change  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Pays  de  Vaud.  They  had  taken  away 
a  religion  that  appealed  to  the  senses  and  to  the 
imagination  of  the  people,  and  substituted  for  it  a 
religion  which  presupposed  a  knowledge  of  the 
Word  of  God;  but  they  had  found  themselves 
utterly  unable  to  supply  the  teachers  or  preachers 
Q^    ^^^^^    Word    whom    every    place,    even    to    the 

church  and  chapel,  is  given  in  Le  Chroniqueiir,  pages  337,  338.  It 
is  simply  astounding.  Not  to  speak  of  Persian  tapestries,  o'f  missals, 
and  of  relics  of  saints  of  a  value  difficult  to  estimate,  there  were  sin- 
gle articles  of  pure  gold  weighing  fifteen,  twenty,  eighty,  or  more 
pounds  apiece. 

'  Daguet,  334,  335. 


46  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

smallest  village,  absolutely  required  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  inhabitants  from  lapsing  into  a  state  of 
still  more  abject  ignorance  than  had  hitherto  pre- 
vailed. It  was  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  training 
men  for  the  pastoral  office,  and  not  for  that  of  pre- 
paring men  for  professional  or  public  life,  that  the 
**  Academie  "  was  founded/ 

Beza  did  not  at  once  undertake  the  duties  which 
he  was  invited  to  assume,  but  returned  to  Geneva 
and  consulted  with  his  brethren  and  especially  with 
John  Calvin.  The  call  was  altogether  unexpected, "^ 
and  Beza  was  at  first  disposed  to  decline  it.  Doubt- 
less, as  Professor  Baum  suggests,^  the  state  of  his 
health,  not  yet  altogether  restored,  was  one  chief 
reason  for  this.  But  it  would  appear  from  the  sequel 
that  when  he  thought  of  deciding  to  go  to  Lausanne 
the  matter  of  the  recent  publication  of  his  unfor- 
tunate Jtivenilia  weighed  much  in  his  mind  against 
such  a  step.  But  Viret  wrote  to  Calvin,  and  the 
latter  with  other  friends  endeavoured  to  remove 
Beza's  scruples.  The  authorities  of  the  Canton  of 
Bern,  adopting  the  action  of  the  Academy  of  Lau- 
sanne, extended  a  formal  but  flattering  invitation. 
To  this  Beza  felt  himself  no  longer  at  liberty  to  turn 
a  deaf  ear.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  man,  however, 
and  the  circumstance  throws  a  bright  light  upon  the 
sincerity  of  his  character  and  the  thoroughness  of 
his  conversion,  that  before  he  consented  to  be  in- 


'  Le  Chroniqueur,  359. 

^  Beza's  dedicatory  letter  to  Wolmar.     So,   too,  in  his  letter  to 
And.  Dudithius,  below  referred  to.     Baum,  i.,  131. 
^  Vol.  i.,  120, 


1549]  Call  to  Lausanne  47 

ducted  into  the  office  of  a  teacher  of  sacred  as  well 
as  secular  learning  to  whom  the  interests  of  the 
young  were  entrusted,  he  was  foremost  in  calling 
the  attention  of  the  ecclesiastical  council  which,  as 
the  manner  of  the  Reformed  Churches  was,  met  to 
inquire  into  his  past  life  and  into  his  doctrinal  be- 
lief, to  the  great  error  of  his  youth. 

"  Of  my  own  accord,"  he  writes  at  a  later  time,  "  I 
made  mention  of  the  Epigrams  I  had  published,  lest  per- 
chance the  matter  might  be  to  the  damage  of  the  Church, 
because  there  were  among  them  some  of  an  amatory 
character  and  certainly  now  and  then  written  with  too 
much  license,  that  is,  in  imitation  of  the  ancient  poets. 
It  pleased  the  assembly  of  the  brethren  that  nevertheless 
I  should  assume  that  function  in  the  Church,  in  the  first 
place  because  it  seemed  plainly  unjust  that  in  the  case 
of  a  person  who  had  passed  over  to  Christ  from  the  Papal 
religion,  just  as  from  paganism,  there  should  be  imputed 
to  him  the  error  in  question  in  a  life  otherwise  honour- 
able and  blameless,  and  in  the  second  place,  because  I 
voluntarily  pledged  myself  to  make  it  publicly  known  to 
all  men  how  greatly  that  inconsiderate  act  of  mine  dis- 
pleased me."  ' 

On  assuming  his  office,  Beza  took  an  oath  declar- 
ing his  hearty  approval  of  all  the  decrees  of  the 
disputation  held  at  Bern  in  1528  respecting  the 
Christian  religion,  and  promised,  on  pain  of  God's 

anchor,  to  conform  his  life  and  teachincf  thereto.'' 
fc>     '  t> 


'  "  Epistola  dedicatoria  ad  And.  Dudithium,"  May  14,  1569,  pre- 
fixed to  the  second  edition  of  the  yuvenilia,  apiid  Baum,  i.,  131. 
''  The  oath  in  Baum,  i.,  132, 


4^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Thus  began  the  course  of  a  brilliant  and  fruitful 
professorship  extending  over  a  period  of  nine  years 
—  1 549-1 5 58.  The  work  was  congenial.  All  his 
past  studies  had  prepared  Theodore  Beza  for  a 
thorough  discharge  of  its  duties.  Greek  was  his 
favourite  tongue.  Its  direct  bearing  upon  the  pre- 
paration for  the  Christian  ministry  of  the  youth 
that  were  drawn  to  his  class-room  by  the  reputation 
of  his  learning,  procured  him  peculiar  gratification. 
There  had  been  a  time  when  secular  learning  pursued 
for  its  own  sake  satisfied  his  highest  aspirations; 
now  he  could  not  be  happy  without  the  conviction 
that,  in  the  professor's  chair,  he  was  rendering  no 
less  important  a  service  to  the  advancement  of  re- 
ligion than  he  would  have  rendered  in  the  pulpit 
devoting  his  entire  time  to  the  work  of  a  popular 
preacher.  Thus  it  was  that  his  labour  became  from 
the  very  start  a  labour  of  love.  Apart  from  the  in- 
spiration created  by  contact  with  bright  minds 
among  his  pupils,  there  was  also  the  friendly  inter- 
course with  his  eminent  colleagues  and  the  growing 
intimacy  with  scholars  and  theologians  eminent  for 
their  attainments  residing  in  neighbouring  cities, 
men  already  well  known  to  him  by  reputation,  but 
now  beginning  to  be  familiar  to  him  through  per- 
sonal relations  or  by  correspondence — no  small  com- 
pensation to  his  mind  ^  for  the  losses  he  had  sustained 
in  forsaking  home  and  native  land — men  like  BuUin- 
ger,  Musculus,  and  Haller,  not  to  speak  of  Calvin 
himself  and  Viret. 

We  should  have  known,  even  had  not  Beza  him- 

'  See  Heppe,  24. 


I550]  ** Abraham's  Sacrifice"  49 

self  expressly  told  us,  that  it  was  this  thought  and 
the  analogy  of  the  patriarch  who,  at  the  bidding  of 
Jehovah,  left  the  land  of  his  nativity  not  knowing 
whither  he  went,  that  chiefly  influenced  Beza  in  the 
choice  of  the  subject  of  the  first  poetical  production 
that  he  brought  out  after  his  conversion.  He  had 
not  been  quite  a  year  at  Lausanne  when  he  gave  to 
the  world  a  sacred  tragedy,  under  the  title  o{  Al?r^. 
hams  Sacrifice,  In  the  preface  he  introduced  it 
with  these  words  (dated  Lausanne,  the  ist  of  Octo- 
ber, 1550): 

"  I  admit  that  by  nature  I  have  always  delighted  in 
poetry,  and  I  cannot  yet  repent  of  it;  but  much  do  I  re- 
gret to  have  employed  the  slender  gifts  with  which  God 
has  endowed  me  in  this  regard,  upon  things  of  which  the 
mere  recollection  at  present  makes  me  blush.  I  have 
therefore  given  myself  to  such  matters  as  are  more  holy, 
hoping  to  continue  therein  hereafter."  ' 

The  drama  was  written  originally  for  the  use  of 
the  students,  and  was  first  performed  by  them  in 
one  of  the  halls  of  the  former  "  officiality,"  or  seat 
of  the  judge  representing  the  late  Bishop  of  Lau- 
sanne  in  the  trial  of  ecclesiastical  cases.  So  favour- 
able  was  its  reception  by  the  public,  that  it  was 
repeatedly  brought  on  the  boards.  From  Lausanne 
It  passed  to  other  places  not  only  in  Switzerland, 
but-  in  France,  where  it  was  played  with  great  ap- 
plause in  many  cities.  It  was  also  translated  into 
foreign  tongues.  The  famous  President  Etienne 
Pasquier,  while  he  is  certainly  mistaken  in  the  date 

'  Preface  to  "  Le  Sacrifice  d'Abraham."  in  Baum,  i.,  74,  note. 


so  Theodore  Beza  [1519^ 

and  occasion  to  which  he  ascribes  the  work,  is  a 
witness  whose  testimony  cannot  be  challenged  to 
the  impression  it  made  upon  himself:  "  Theodore 
Beza,  a  fine  poet,  both  Latin  and  French,  com- 
posed, on  the  accession  of  King  Henry  [the  Second], 
the  Sacrifice  of  Abraham  in  French  verse,  so  well 
portrayed  to  the  life,  that,  as  I  read  it  in  former 
days,  tears  flowed  from  my  eyes,"  '  The  most 
pathetic  passage  is  naturally  that  which  culminates 
in  the  last  dialogue  between  the  patriarch  and  his 
son  as  the  latter  is  about  to  be  sacrificed.  A  modern 
French  critic  of  high  standing  may  here  be  allowed 
to  speak,  especially  as  he  institutes  a  favourable 
comparison  between  Beza's  work  and  that  of  the 
great  Racine  himself,  which  might  be  esteemed  pre- 
sumptuous if  instituted  by  a  foreigner.  In  analysing 
the  latter  part  of  the  drama,  A.  Sayous,  in  his  Etudes 
Litt&aireSy  observes  upon  the  passage  where  Abra- 
ham turns  to  immolate  Isaac,  that 

"  here  begins  a  scene  that  amply  justifies  Pasquier's 
tears.  It  is  conducted  with  singular  art.  The  emotion 
grows  from  the  beginning  to  the  end — the  denouement 
naturally  suspended  and  the  father's  anguish  prolonged 
by  the  young  son's  questions,  the  tears  of  Isaac,  his 
childish  prayer,  his  thought  of  his  mother,  and  his  art- 
less resignation — all  this  is  of  a  truthfulness  that  sur- 
passes in  pathos  the  scenes  in  the  French  Iphige'nie^ 
between  Agamemnon  and  his  daughter." 

In  which  bold  advocacy  of  the  composition  of  the 
French  Reformer,  the  acute  critic  fortifies  himself 

'  Etienne  Pasquier,  Les  Recherches  de  la  France,  615, 


I550]  '^  Abraham's  Sacrifice "  51 

by  citing  the  German  poet  Chamisso  "  who  pushed 
his  admiration  so  far  as  to  compare  the  dialo-ue 
between  Isaac  and  Abraham  to  the  most  divine 
productions  of  the  Greeks."  ' 

'£^uc/es  Litteraires^  i.,  266.  Sayous  regards-and  he  is  probably 
right,  from  a  purely  literary  point  of  view-the  Sacrifice  of  Abrl 
ha.t  as  the  best  of  all  Beza's  French  poems,  assigning  to  it  a  place 
far  in  advance  of  his  metrical  translations  of  the  Psalms  of  David 
These  last  were  begun  during  Beza's  residence  at  Lausanne  and 
might  be  appropriately  treated  here.  I  prefer,  however,  to  give 
them  a  separate  consideration  farther  on.  in  a  chapter  on  Theodore 
hJeza  and  the  Huguenot  Psalter. 


CHAPTER  IV 

TREATISE    ON   THE    PUNISHMENT   OF   HERETICS 
1554 

WITH  little  pleasure  we  turn  from  the  first 
of  the  poetical  compositions  written  after 
Theodore  Beza's  conversion,  to  the  first  of  his 
graver  and  more  important  writings  in  prose. 

Abundant  attention  was  given  in  a  previous  chap- 
ter to  the  youthful  error  of  Beza  into  which  he  fell 
before  he  broke  with  his  old  thoughts  and  purposes 
in  life,  an  error  at  a  later  time  not  merely  deplored, 
but  heartily  repented  of,  candidly  confessed,  and 
publicly  condemned  by  him  to  the  end  of  his  days. 
I  must  now  speak  of  an  act  of  his  more  mature  life 
which  our  later  age  must  regard  as  most  reprehens- 
ible, an  act  for  which  not  only  did  he  never  express 
repentance,  but  which  he  continued  to  justify  as 
proper  and  righteous  throughout  a  full  half-century, 
or  to  the  very  time  of  his  death,  with  an  unshaken 
conviction  that  he  was  in  the  right.  I  refer  to  his 
public  advocacy  of  the  tenet,  then  held  by  the  vast 
majority  of  educated  and  religious  men,  but  now  as 
universally  repudiated,  that  heretics,  and  especially 
outrageous    blasphemers,    may    and    ought    to    be 

52 


1554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        53 

punished  by  the  civil  authorities,  even  capitally. 
In  1554  Beza  first  published  his  treatise  "  Concern- 
ing the  duty  of  punishing  heretics  by  the  civil 
magistrate:  in  answer  to  the  medley  of  Martin  Bel- 
lius  and  the  sect  of  the  new  Academics  "  ("  De 
haereticis  a  civili  magistratu  puniendis,  adversus 
Martini  Bellii  farraginem,et  novorum  Academicorum 
sectam"). 

The  controversy  arose  from  the  execution  of  the 
Spanish  physician  Michael  Servetus,  burnt  alive  at 
the  stake  on  the  hill  of  Champel,  at  Geneva,  on  the 
27th  of  October,  1553. 

The  main  facts  in  the  case  are  incontrovertible 
and  are  so  familiar  to  all  readers  of  history,  that  the 
barest  reminder  is  necessary  in  this  place.  Having 
been  apprehended  at  Vienne,  near  Lyons,  Servetus 
escaped  from  the  hands  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
judges  by  a  secret  flight,  and  in  his  absence  was 
condemned,  as  a  heretic  and  a  fugitive,  to  a  death 
by  slow  fire.  But  he  had  avoided  one  danger  only 
to  fall  into  another  equally  appalling.  Discovered 
in  the  city  of  Geneva  by  John  Calvin,  and  by  him 
denounced  to  the  civil  authorities,  he  was  again 
tried,  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  the  same 
punishment.  Calvin  had  long  since  forewarned 
Servetus  of  the  peril  he  would  incur  by  coming  to 
Geneva.  He  now  openly  advocated  his  being  put 
to  death.  It  is  the  great  blot  upon  his  name.  It  is 
the  one  great  error  of  his  life  which  has  given  occa- 
sion to  his  enemies  and  the  adversaries  of  the  Pro- 
testant faith  to  blaspheme.  And  this  is  none  the 
less  true  if  we  concede,  as  we  must  concede,  that 


54  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

his  fault  was  the  fault  of  the  great  majority  of  his 
contemporaries,  even  the  most  pious  and  excellent, 
who  with  him  held  the  pestilent  doctrine  that  sins 
against  God,  transgressions  against  the  first  table  of 
the  law,  may  be  punished,  even  capitally,  by  the 
civil  magistrate.  It  is  not  that,  according  to  the 
popular  impression,  John  Calvin  burned  Servetus; 
for,  in  point  of  fact,  so  far  from  burning  him,  he 
opposed  this  mode  of  execution  as  cruel;  but  that 
he,  with  his  intellect  of  the  highest  order  and  with  a 
heart  which  we  know  otherwise  to  have  been  kindly, 
had  not  enfranchised  himself  from  old  and  traditional 
theories  of  the  province  of  the  secular  power,  and  as 
a  Christian  knew  not  what  spirit  he  was  of;  indeed, 
that  he  seemed  to  have  receded  from  his  own  tolerant 
expressions  in  the  earliest  edition  of  his  Institutes, 
wherein  he  asserted,  respecting  our  treatment  of  the 
excommunicated,  that  we  should  live  with  them  as 
with  Turks,  Saracens,  and  other  enemies  of  religion, 
striving,  meanwhile,  in  every  possible  manner, 
whether  by  exhortation  and  by  teaching,  or  by 
mildness  and  gentleness,  or  by  prayers  to  God,  to 
induce  them  to  turn  to  the  better  way  and  the  so- 
ciety of  the  faithful. 

To  cruelty  in  the  putting  of  men  out  of  the  world, 
the  men  of  the  sixteenth  century  were,  unfortun- 
ately, pretty  well  used.  The  estrapade,  in  the 
neighbouring  kingdom  of  France,  had  had  its  host  of 
victims,  and  the  estrapade,  ingeniously  contrived  to 
prolong  the  tortures  of  the  dying  victim,  by  altern- 
ately lowering  him  into  the  flames  and  hoisting 
him  out,  in  preparation  for  a  new  exposure  to  the 


1554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        55 

fire,  was,  to  say  the  least,  quite  as  cruel  as  the 
ordinary  execution  at  the  stake.  It  was  therefore 
not  so  much  the  cruelty  of  the  means  used  to  put 
Servetus  to  death,  as  the  inconsistency  of  the  Re- 
formers in  resorting  to  violence  to  suppress  heresy, 
that  shocked  many  contemporaries,  as  it  shocks  us. 
Among  those  that  entered  a  protest  against  the 
principle  involved  in  the  execution  of  Servetus,  was 
a  writer  who  signed  himself  Martin  BelHus,  but 
whose  true  name  was  suspected  by  Beza  of  being 
Sebastian  Chasteillon,  or  Castalio.'  It  was  in  answe'r 
to  his  treatise  that  Beza  wrote. 

Castalio,  if  indeed  it  was  he,  had  given  to  his 
small  volume,  now  become  extremely  rare,'  the  form 
of  an  inquiry  into  the  question,  ''  Whether  heretics 
ought  to  be  proceeded  against,  or  persecuted,  and, 
in  general,  how  they  should  be  dealt  with."  It 
claimed  to  be  a  book  "  of  the  utmost  necessity  in 
this  most  turbulent  time,"  and  was  made  up  of  a 
collection  of  the  sentiments  of  the  learned  in  ancient 
and  in  modern  times.  To  us,  as  we  shall  see  pre- 
sently,  the  chief  interest  centres  in  the  remarkable 
dedicatory  letter  which  the  author  prefixed  to  it. 
Castalio  was  a  very  erudite  man,  whose  most  note- 
worthy production  was  a  new  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  the  Latin  language,  the  result  of  the 
labours  of  ten  years.      In  this  he  strove,  while  often 

'  For  a  brief  discussion  of  the  authorship  of  this  treatise  see 
Schaff,  Church  History,  vii..  794,  etc.  Prof.  Ferdinand  Buisson,  of 
Neufchatel,  has  treated  the  matter  at  greater  length  in  his  Sebastien 
Casti'llwH  (Paris,  2  vols.,  1892). 

1^  Bonnet,  "Sebastien  Castalion,  ou  La  Tolerance  au  .Seizieme 
Siecle,"  in  Bulletin,  vol.  xvi.  (1867).     See  especially  p.  539. 


56  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

making  a  slight  sacrifice  of  the  Hteral  form,  to  give 
to  the  Holy  Scriptures  a  clearness  and  an  elegance 
of  expression  that  would  commend  them  to  a  wider 
circle  of  readers,  and  enable  them  to  supplant  pro- 
fane writings  in  the  schools.  It  is  no  impeachment 
of  his  good  intentions,  or,  indeed,  of  his  scholarship, 
to  admit  that  his  Bible  won  no  such  place  as  was 
anticipated  for  it  by  its  author.  Yet  Castalio  was 
no  contemptible  exegete.  If  the  scholarly  reader 
will  take  the  trouble  to  run  through  the  pages  of  the 
lengthy  treatise  in  which  Beza  reviews  some  of  the 
passages  translated  in  his  own  Latin  version  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  to  compare  them  with  the 
same  passages  as  rendered  by  Castalio,  he  will  con- 
vince himself  of  this.  For  if  he  find  Beza's  judgment 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases  to  be  more  sound 
than  that  of  his  opponent,  yet  will  he  discover  others 
where  the  latter  shows  himself  superior.  Thus 
Beza's  interpretation  of  Heb.  v.,  7,  in  which  he  co- 
incides with  Calvin,  is  forced  and  undoubtedly  erron- 
eous, while  that  of  Castalio  is  endorsed  by  the  latest 
and  best  of  recent  scholars,  and  is  certainly  correct.' 
As  a  teacher  and  successor  of  the  famous  Mathurin 
Corderius,  Castalio  had  worthily  discharged  the 
duties  of  his  office  in  the  college  of  Geneva,  until, 
in  consequence  of  differences  of  opinion  between 
himself  and  his  old  friend  Calvin,  he  voluntarily  re- 
tired, and  took  up  his  abode  first  at  Lausanne  and 
then  at  Basel.      Here  he  spent  the  rest,  of  his  days 

^  See  *'  Responsio  ad  defensiones  et  reprehensiones  Sebastian!  Cas- 
tellionis,  quibus  suam  Novi  Testamenti  interpretationem  defendere 
adversus  Bezam  et  ejus  versionem  vicissim  reprehendere  conatus  est" 
(published  first  in  1563).     In  Tracts   Thcol.^  i.,  497. 


1554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        57 

in  an  honourable  but  painful  struggle  against  pov- 
erty. History  has  in  our  own  times  vindicated  his 
claim  to  be  classed  among  the  first  and  noblest  as- 
sertors  of  the  rights  of  the  human  conscience.  The 
letter  to  the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg  which  "  Martin 
Bellius  "  prefixed  to  his  book  on  the  treatment  of 
heretics,  and  in  which  he  fully  sets  forth  his  view.^, 
has  been  justly  styled  "  one  of  the  purest  inspira- 
tions of  the  century,"  "  one  of  those  beneficent 
revelations  that  console  for  the  excesses  of  another 
age,"  in  which  "  its  author  proclaims,  with  rare 
eloquence,  a  truth  so  novel  that  it  was  to  scandalise 
contemporaries — the  right  of  every  man  to  believe 
freely  and  to  assert  his  belief,  remaining  responsible 
for  his  errors  only  before  God."  '  A  few  sentences 
describing  the  state  of  Christendom  may  sufifice  to 
convey  a  notion  of  its  spirit : 

"  Nobody  can  stand  the  slightest  contradiction,  and, 
although  there  are  to-day  nearly  as  many  opinions  as 
there  are  men,  there  is  not  one  sect  that  does  not  con- 
demn the  others;  hence  exiles,  chains,  fires,  the  gallows, 
and  that  lamentable  array  of  punishments  for  the  simple 
crime  of  holding  views  displeasing  to  the  powerful  of 
the  earth,  on  questions  in  dispute  for  centuries  and  still 
unsettled."  "  I  have  long  been  seeking  to  find  out 
what  a  heretic  is,  and  here  is  what  I  have  discovered: 
he  is  a  man  that  thinks  otherwise  than  we  do  respecting 
religion."  "I  ask  you,  Who  would  wish  to  be  a  Christ- 
ian, when  he  sees  men  that  lay  claim  to  that  designation 
dragged  to  execution  and  treated  more  cruelly  than  wc 
treat  thieves  and  robbers  ?  Who  would  not  believe  thai 
*  Bonnet,  tibi  su^ra,  xvi.,  544, 


58  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Christ  is  a  Moloch  or  some  pitiless  divinity  demanding 
human  sacrifices  upon  his  altars  ?  "  * 

It  is  deplorable  to  see  a  man  of  the  intellect  of 
Beza,  through  the  long  course  of  a  treatise  which, 
in  the  edition  of  his  collected  theological  works,  fills 
not  less  than  eighty-five  closely  printed  folio  pages, 
labouring  to  overthrow  the  arguments,  for  the  most 
part  clear  and  cogent,  by  means  of  which  Castalio 
and  others,  doubtless  otherwise  his  inferiors  in 
dialectic  skill,  but  on  this  question  speaking  from 
the  fulness  of  conviction,  had  built  up  a  structure 
which  in  our  eyes  at  least  is  impregnable.  It  is  not 
the  only  case  in  which,  looking  back  from  a  consider- 
able distance  of  time  upon  a  past  conflict  of  arms, 
we  cannot  divest  ourselves  of  the  conviction  that 
there  has  been  some  frightful  mistake,  and  that,  from 
their  character,  from  their  antecedents,  from  the 
community  of  their  great  aims,  the  combatants 
ought  to  have  been  fighting,  not  as  enemies,  but  as 
friends,  in  order  to  conserve  and  not  to  tear  down, 
making  a  common  front  against  common  foes.  Nor. 
perhaps,  is  it  an  unwarrantable  surmise  that  the 
strong  personal  friendship  in  which  he  held  Calvin, 
and  the  ardent  desire  to  vindicate  the  propriety  of 
Calvin's  course,  added  unconsciously  to  the  virulence 
with  which  Theodore  Beza  treated  both  the  memory 
of  Servetus  himself  and  the  man  who  called  in  ques- 
tion the  justice  of  the  punishment  of  Servetus.  As 
for  that  heretic,  he  is  to  Beza,  I  may  remark,  "  of  all 
men  that  have  hitherto  lived  the  most  impious  and 


'Passages  quoted  in  Bulletin,   xvi.,   542-544,  and  in   Haag,   La 
France  Protestante,  s,  v,  Chateillon,  iv.,  130,  131, 


15541      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        59 

blasphemous,"  while  the  men  who  have  condemned 
his  trial  as  iniquitous,  are  for  him  the  "  emissaries 
of  Satan."  ' 

Castalio  and  his  allies,  according  to  Beza,  took 
three  positions,  each  of  which  they  defended  by  a 
variety  of  arguments.  The  first  was,  That  heretics 
ought  not  to  be  punished.  The  second  was,  That 
heretics  cannot  justly  be  punished  by  the  civil 
magistrate.  The  third  was,  That  heretics  should 
not  be  punished  with  death.  In  order  to  prove  that 
heretics  should  not  be  punished,  they  alleged  that 
the  matters  in  controversy  are  not  as  yet  necessary 
to  be  known,  nor  can  they  be  known  save  by  the 
pure  in  heart,  nor,  if  known,  would  they  make  men 
better ;  that  they  cannot  be  decided  by  God's  written 
Word.  They  argued  from  the  examples  of  Judas 
Maccabeus  and  of  Moses,  from  the  authority  of 
Gamaliel  and  Paul,  from  the  Scriptural  description 
of  Charity,  from  the  mildness  and  gentleness  that 
should  characterise  all  Christians.  They  asserted 
that  no  class  of  men  are  less  to  be  feared  than  are 
heretics.  They  brought  up  instances  of  Christ's 
clemency  and  benignity.  They  showed  that  the 
civil  magistrate  leaves  unpunished  mucn  greater 
offenders — Turks,  Jews,  the  proud,  the  avaricious, 
and  the  like.  They  boldly  claimed  that  in  point  of 
fact  no  one  can  be  compelled  to  believe,  and  there- 
fore the  attempt  ought  not  to  be  made  to  compel 
men  to  believe. 

They  proved  that,  if  to  be  punished  at  all,  the 

'  "  De  haereticis  a  civ.  mag.  puniendis."  Tractationes  Tlieolo- 
gica,  i.,  85. 


6o  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

punishment  of  heretics  does  not  belong  to  the  civil 
magistrate,  by  our  Lord's  own  assertion  that  His 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  and  by  that  of  Saint 
Paul  that  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal. 
Theologians,  they  said,  can  defend  their  doctrine, 
as  do  the  professors  of  the  other  sciences,  without 
a  recourse  to  the  magistrate.  They  used  Christ  and 
His  apostles  as  examples.  They  did  not  forget  to 
notice  that  the  world  is  incompetent  to  judge  of 
heresy,  and  that  most  princes  abuse  their  authority 
in  this  as  in  other  things.  They  fortified  them- 
selves with  evidence  drawn  from  the  practice  of  the 
ancient  Church. 

As  to  the  third  head,  they  made  effective  use  of 
the  Parable  of  the  Tares  and  the  command  to  let 
the  tares  grow  until  the  harvest.  To  permit  the 
magistrate  to  kill  the  heretic  is,  said  they,  to  per- 
mit him  to  exercise  God's  prerogative  of  killing  the 
soul.  If  heretics  are  to  be  slain,  then  the  greater 
part  of  mankind  should  be  put  to  death.  Saint  Paul 
bids  us  '-*  avoid,"  not  "  kill,"  the  heretic,  and  en- 
joins us,  "  Judge  nothing  before  the  time."  The 
fear  of  death  makes  men  hypocrites.  Many  are  the 
instances  where  such  punishment  has  resulted  very 
badly.  By  the  Church  under  the  Emperors  the  life 
of  even  such  an  arch-heretic  as  Arius  was  spared. 

Such  were,  according  to  Beza,  the  arguments, 
often  crudely  stated,  by  which  the  forerunners  of 
that  .tolerance  which  has  become  the  law  of  our 
higher  civilisation  undertook  to  establish  principles 
which  for  us  have  become  axiomatic  truths.  As  his- 
toric evidence  of  human  progress  they  deserve  a  place 


1554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        6i 

here.  Nor  would  it  be  altogether  uninteresting  to 
note  in  detail  the  answers  by  which  Beza  attempts 
to  break  the  force  of  the  arguments  of  his  oppon- 
ents. But  more  important  is  it  to  examine  the 
grounds  on  which  he  undertakes  affirmatively  to 
establish  his  own  allegations. 

''Heretics  are  to  be puiiisJied. ' '  By  heretics  are  not 
meant  unbelievers,  like  Jews  and  Turks;  nor  men 
of  blameworthy  lives,  like  thieves  and  murderers ; 
nor  men  that  err  from  the  truth  through  sheer  sim- 
plicity and  ignorance;  but  such  persons  as  lay  claim 
to  be  called  the  faithful,  and,  having  been  legiti- 
mately convicted  from  God's  Word,  yet,  following 
their  own  judgment,  so  pertinaciously  and  resolutely 
defend  certain  false  doctrines  against  the  Church,  as 
not  to  hesitate  by  their  factions  to  rend  the  Church's 
peace  and  concord.  That  such  men  ought  to  be 
punished,  "  no  one — to  my  knowledge  at  least, — " 
says  Beza,  "  has  been  found  thus  far  to  call  in  ques- 
tion, with  the  exception  of  these  new  Academics."  * 
They  are  the  greatest  pests  of  the  Church,  true  in- 
struments of  the  devil  for  its  destruction.  The  great 
part  of  men  live  far  from  exemplary  lives,  and  are 
exposed  to  the  violent  assaults  of  the  external  foes 
of  the  Church  ;  but  so  long  as  Doctrine  remains  safe, 
it  appears  as  a  brilliant  constellation,  a  Cynosure  by 
whose  rays  the  pious  may  hold  their  course  in  the 
midst  of  the  tempests.  But  when  Doctrine  itself  is 
so  corrupted  that  the  devil  lurks  beneath  it,  what 
remains  but  that  very  many  will  embrace  the  devil 
in  place  of  God  ?  What  but  that  very  many,  aban- 
^  Ibid.,  i.,  143. 


62  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

doning  the  hope  of  knowing  the  truth,  will  cast 
from  them  all  religion,  and,  in  fine,  there  will  arise 
a  horrible  confusion  in  the  Church  of  God  ?  The 
evil  is  most  grave  when  Satan  has  transformed  him- 
self and  attacks  the  very  vitals  of  the  Church.  Then 
the  most  prompt,  the  sharpest,  of  remedies  is  called 
for.  So  far  from  having  no  obligation  to  keep  within 
bounds  the  spreading  cancer,  it  may  be  necessary, 
in  order  to  save  the  rest  of  the  body,  for  men  to 
resort  to  cautery  and  knife.  This  is  shown  by  the 
testimony  of  God's  Word.  Not  to  speak  of  laws 
against  blasphemers  and  false  prophets,  or  of  the 
acts  of  Moses,  Asa,  and  Josiah,  he  that  will  not  hear 
the  Church,  we  are  told,  is  to  be  regarded  as  a 
Gentile  and  a  publican.  If  this  was  said  of  one  who 
had  committed  a  private  wrong,  much  more  ought 
it  to  hold  good  in  the  case  of  one  who  plucks  up 
religious  Doctrine  itself.  Thus  did  the  apostles 
give  over  to  Satan  the  heretics  Philetus  and  Hy- 
menaeus.  The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is, 
therefore,  that 

"  those  who  think  that  heretics  ought  not  to  be  pun- 
ished, are  attempting  to  introduce  into  the  Church  of 
God  the  most  pestilent  of  all  opinions,  a  view  that  con- 
flicts with  the  doctrine  first  given  by  God  the  Father, 
subsequently  renewed  by  Christ,  and  finally  practised  by 
the  universal  orthodox  Church  by  perpetual  consent." 
"  So  that  to  me,  indeed,"  observes  Beza,  "  such  men 
appear  to  act  more  absurdly  than  if  they  were  to  deny 
that  sacrilegious  persons  or  parricides  ought  to  be  pun- 
ished; since  heretics  are  infinitely  worse  than  all  such 
criminals.     For  which  reason  I  shall  not  employ  more 


1554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        63 

words  to  prove  this  part  of  the  question,  which  I  am 
confident  that  all  who  are  not  altogether  unjust  judges 
will  concede  to  me."  ' 

If  heretics,  then,  should  be  punished,  by  whom 
may  punishment  be  inflicted  ?  "  They  are  to  be 
punished  by  the  civil  magistrate, '  *  Beza  replies.  The 
chief  end  of  human  society  is  that  God  may  receive 
the  honour  which  men  are  bound  to  pay  Him. 
Now,  the  civil  magistrate  is  the  appointed  guardian 
and  governor  of  human  society.  He  ought  therefore 
in  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  human  society 
to  take  the  greatest  account  of  this  its  chief  end.  It 
is  his  duty  indeed,  so  far  as  in  him  lies,  to  see  that  no 
discord  shall  intervene  in  the  dealings  of  the  citizens 
with  one  another;  but  since  it  is  not  the  ultimate 
and  chief  end  of  human  society  that  men  should 
live  together  in  peace,  but  rather  that,  living  in 
peace,  they  should  worship  God,  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  magistrate,  even  at  the  cost  of  external  peace, 
if  it  cannot  be  done  otherwise,  to  secure  the  true 
worship  of  God  throughout  the  extent  of  his  juris- 
diction. So  far  is  it  from  being  his  duty  to  abstain 
from  exercising  solicitude  for  religion.  But  he  can- 
not conserve  religion  unless  he  coerces  the  pertina- 
cious and  factious  despisers  of  religion  by  the  sword 
{Jure gladii).  It  remains,  that  whoever  undertakes 
to  divorce  the  magistrate  from  religion  either  does 
not  know^  what  is  the  true  end  of  human  society,  or 
conceals  what  he  knows  perfectly  well.  The  ex- 
terior discipline  of  the  Church  must  be  entrusted 
to  one  of  the  two — either  to  the  civil  magistrate  or 

'  Ibid. ,  uH  supra. 


64  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

to  the  ministers  of  the  Church — otherwise  there  is 
anarchy.  It  cannot  be  entrusted  to  the  latter,  else 
there  would  be  a  confused  mingling  of  the  power  of 
the  sword  and  that  of  the  keys.  It  must  therefore 
be  entrusted  to  the  former.  To  illustrate :  An 
Anabaptist  is  denounced.  The  body  of  presbyters 
assembles.  He  is  summoned,  but  answers  that  he 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  sinners.  How  does 
the  Church  act  ?  If  it  acts  according  to  God's 
Word,  when  the  unhappy  man  cannot  be  corrected 
in  any  other  way,  it  delivers  him  unto  Satan,  that 
he  may  learn  not  to  blaspheme.  He,  on  the  other 
hand,  willingly  and  of  his  own  accord,  separates 
himself  from  the  Church.  Other  fanatics  follow  him 
and  so  a  defection  arises.  Next  some  disciple  of 
Servetus  or  Osiander  will  come  forward.  On  being 
summoned,  he  will  present  himself,  but  it  will  be 
to  judge  the  Church.  Being  cast  out,  he  too  will  find 
disciples,  and  hence  another  faction.  At  length 
some  "  Academic,"  an  excellent  and  modest  man, 
forsooth,  will  make  his  appearance.  When  sum- 
moned, he  will  come  and  will  state,  by  way  of  pre- 
amble, that  he  is  eager  to  learn,  and  that  he  reads 
and  hears  everything.  If  you  undertake  to  teach 
him,  however,  he  prays  that  no  violence  be  done  to 
his  conscience.  If  you  insist  and  expose  his  im- 
pudence in  corrupting  the  Scriptures,  quite  unlike 
the  old  philosophers  of  the  Academy,  who  used  to 
assert  that  the  only  thing  they  knew  was  that  they 
knew  nothing,  he  will  tell  you  that  no  one  knows 
anything  but  himself,  and  yet  he  will  protest  that 
he  condemns  nobody.      If  he  can  find  any  means  of 


1554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        65 

so  doing,  he,  too,  on  being  ejected  from  the  Church, 
will  set  up  another  conventicle.  What  shall  the 
Church  do  in  these  circumstances  ?  Cry  unto  the 
Lord,  you  say.  Yes,  and  despite  Satan's  vain  op- 
position, the  Church  will  be  saved.  But  the  hungry 
man  cries  and  does  not  wait  to  be  fed  by  an  angel 
as  was  Elijah.  The  bread  that  is  given  him  or  that 
he  seeks  to  obtain  by  his  industry  he  regards  as 
provided  for  him  by  God.  Suppose  that  there  be 
in  the  Church  a  Christian  magistrate.  Must  he,  who 
will  not  tolerate  the  dissensions  of  the  citizens  in 
profane  matters,  remain  quiet  when  the  great  end 
for  which  human  society  was  instituted  is  in  ques- 
tion ?  Or,  are  those  rather  to  whom  the  power  of 
the  sword  is  not  entrusted,  to  be  permitted  to  take 
upon  them  to  exercise  coercion  ?  Who  does  not 
see  that  if  the  ministry  thus  intrude  on  the  office  of 
the  magistrate,  as  the  Roman  Antichrist  has  done, 
there  is  the  greatest  danger  of  dire  confusion  as  the 
result  of  commingling  what  God  Himself  has  made 
distinct  ?  Then,  again,  if  the  pastors,  the  shepherds 
of  the  flock,  become  transformed  into  wolves,  what 
is  to  be  done  ?  You  will  say,  Let  a  Council  be  con- 
vened and  let  it  compel  the  submission  of  the  unruly. 
But  who  shall  summon  the  Council,  especially  the 
Universal  Council,  if  not  the  civil  magistrate  ?  For 
the  apostle's  prescription  remains  fixed.  Let  every 
soul  be  subject  to  the  higher  powers.* 

All  this,  says  Beza,  is  confirmed  by  the  authority 
of  the  Word  of  God — and  here  he  cites  a  multitude 
of  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New — • 

'  Ibid.,  i.,  143-145. 


66  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

and  by  the  opinions  of  the  learned  men  of  more 
modern  times — Luther,  Melanchthon,  Bucer,  and 
the  Hke/ 

* '  Heretics  are  occasionally  to  be  coerced  even  by  capi- 
tal punishment.''  The  right  of  the  magistrate  to 
punish  heretics  being  once  proven,  as  Beza  beheved 
that  he  had  proved  it,  he  found  Httle  difficulty  in 
the  matter  of  the  amount  or  severity  of  the  punish- 
ment. The  gravity  of  the  crime  of  heresy  is  the 
first  and  chief  ground  for  the  infliction  of  the  penalty 
of  death.  Inasmuch  as  the  purpose  of  the  law  is  to 
deter  men  from  sin  by  the  example  of  the  punishment 
meted  out  to  the  wrong-doer,  it  is  right  that  the 
judge  should  take  great  account  of  humanity.  Thus 
it  happens  that  one  and  the  same  offence  is  visited 
in  the  same  region,  now  with  a  more  severe,  now 
with  a  milder  sentence.  But  there  are  some  crimes 
which,  because  of  their  enormity,  are  punished, 
among  all  races  of  men  above  the  rank  of  savages, 
not  indeed  by  one  particular  kind  of  execution,  but 
yet  universally  by  some  form  of  death.  Such  are 
parricide,  voluntary  homicide,  sacrilege,  blasphemy, 
impiety,  or  the  violation  of  the  publicly  received 
religion,  and  other  crimes  of  the  sort.  The  case  is 
clear  enough  as  far  as  parricide,  voluntary  homicide, 
and  sacrilege  are  concerned.  It  is  surprising  that 
anybody  should  entertain  doubts  respecting  blas- 
phemy and  impiety ;  for  nobody  can  deny  that  the 
magnitude  of  a  crime  is  to  be  measured  by  the 
quality  of  the  "person  against  whom  the  offence  is 
committed.       Blasphemy    and    impiety,    by  which 

'  Ibid.,  145-150. 


1554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        67 

God's  majesty  is  attacked,  are,  therefore,  so  much 
the  greater  crimes  as  His  glory  excels  the  dignity  of 
men.  Not  that  all  blasphemers  and  impious  per- 
sons indiscriminately  are  to  be  punished,  but  only 
those  that  act  willingly  and  knowingly.  Those  that 
are  without  the  Church  must  be  left  to  God,  who 
will  judge  them  or  in  His  own  time  enlighten  them. 
But  those  that  are  within  the  Church  must  be  ad- 
monished, first,  privately,  then  before  a  greater 
number,  possibly  dealt  with  more  sharply.  But  if 
to  blasphemy  and  impiety  there  be  added  heresy, 
that  is,  a  stubborn  contempt  of  the  Word  of  God 
and  of  Church  discipline,  and  if  a  mad  fury  for  cor- 
rupting others  also  has  taken  possession  of  them, 
what  greater  or  more  flagitious  crime  can  arise 
among  men  ?  If,  then,  the  mode  of  punishment 
ought  to  be  regulated  according  to  the  greatness  of 
the  crime,  it  would  seem  that  no  adequate  penalty 
can  be  found  for  this  heinous  enormity.  A  man 
who  slays  another,  or  commits  any  other  crime 
against  his  neighbour,  attacks  the  commonwealth, 
yet  so  as  that  some  estimate  can  be  made  of  the 
injury;  but  he  that  publicly  opens  the  way  for  the 
corruption  of  God's  true  worship,  starts  a  conflagra- 
tion which  possibly  shall  scarcely  be  extinguished 
by  the  everlasting  destruction  of  an  infinite  number 
of  men.  Whether  to  vindicate  the  glory  of  God  or 
to  preserve  human  society,  therefore,  there  are  no 
men  whom  the  magistrate  ought  to  punish  more 
severely  than  heretical  blasphemers.' 

Such,  briefly  stated,  were  Beza's  arguments.     He 

^  Ibid.,  i.,  151,  foil. 


68  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

found  them  to  be  in  full  accord  with  the  precepts 
given  by  the  Lord  in.  the  Old  Testament  to  slay 
without  pity  the  introducer  of  strange  gods,  the 
false  prophet,  the  blasphemer,  and  the  profaner  of 
the  Sabbath.  Such  commands,  he  said,  have  never 
been  repealed.  The  Mosaic  Law  remains  in  force, 
with  the  exception  of  the  ceremonial  part.  Of  the 
other  two  divisions,  the  Decalogue  or  Moral  Law, 
being  an  accurate  transcript  of  the  Natural  Law,  in 
which  man's  conscience  agrees  with  the  unchanging 
will  of  God,  cannot  suffer  destruction  before  nature 
itself  perishes,  but  abides  the  certain  rule  of  right 
and  wrong  for  all  nations  and  for  all  ages.  The 
third  division  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  the  judicial,  is  also 
of  universal  obligation,  in  so  far  as  its  precepts  do 
not  relate  to  one  people  alone,  nor  punish  the 
violation  of  ceremonies  now  abolished  by  the  Gos- 
pel, but  embrace  that  code  of  general  equity  which 
should  everywhere  prevail. 

"  In  fine,"  said  Beza,  "  I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm 
that  those  princes  do  their  duty  who  adopt  as  examples 
for  their  own  imitation  these  laws  of  God,  by  establish- 
ing, if  not  the  very  same  kind  of  penalty,  yet  certainly 
the  very  same  measure  of  penalty,  and  who,  as  against 
factious  apostates,  enact  some  form  of  capital  punish- 
ment for  horrible  blasphemy  and  crime.  For  the  majesty 
of  God  should  be  held  to  be  of  such  moment  among  all 
men,  through  the  everlasting  ages,  that,  whoever  scoffs 
at  it,  because  he  scoffs  at  the  very  Author  of  life,  most 
justly  deserves  to  be  put  to  death  by  violence.  This  I 
say,  this  I  cry  aloud,  relying  upon  the  truth  of  God  and 
the  testimony  of  conscience.     Let  my  opponents  shout 


T554]      The  Punishment  of  Heretics        69 

until  they  are  hoarse  that  we  are  savage,  cruel,  inhuman, 
bloodthirsty.  Yet  shall  the  truth  conquer  and  show  at 
length  that  those  deserve  these  epithets  who,  in  their 
preposterous  or  insincere  zeal  for  clemency,  suffer  the 
wolves  to  fatten  upon  the  life  of  the  sheep  rather  than 
do  their  duty  in  vindicating  the  majesty  of  God."  ' 

Most  deplorable  indeed  is  the  error  of  Beza,  both 
because  of  the  perverted  view  he  presented  of  the 
duty  of  the  Christian  Church  to  appeal  to  the  State 
for  aid  in  its  conflict  with  heresy,  and  because  of 
the  equally  disastrous  notion  he  entertained  of  the 
duty  of  the  Christian  ruler  to  punish,  even  with 
death,  the  crime  of  active  dissent  from  the  Church's 
tenets.  It  is  impossible  for  us,  however,  to  deny 
the  sincerity  of  the  conviction,  animating  him  and 
his  fellow-reformers,  that  the  indiscriminate  admis- 
sion into  the  Christian  State  of  ail  shades  of  religious 
thought  would  at  no  distant  period  prove  the  State's 
ruin.  It  was  this  conviction  that  rendered  Beza 
blind  to  the  consequences  that  were  sure  to  follow, 
and  that  did  follow,  the  approval  of  the  principle 
enunciated  by  Saint  Augustine  that  constraint  may 
lawfully  be  employed  to  bring  the  recalcitrant  into 
the  Gospel  fold.  Not  to  speak  of  the  justification 
of  every  form  of  cruelty  found  by  the  apologists 
for  Romanism  in  the  execution  of  Servetus  by  Pro- 
testants, the  enforced  conversions  of  the  dragon- 
nades,  a  hundred  years  later,  seemed  to  have  an 
anticipated  vindication  in  the  theories  advanced  by 
those  Protestant  writers  who  with  strancre  inconsist- 

^  Ibid.,  i.,  155. 


70  Theodore  Beza  [1519-54 

ency  have  striven  to  clear  Calvin  and  Geneva  from 
the  imputation  of  persecution. 

Yet  Beza  was  honest  in  this.  He  was  also  honest 
in  his  relentless  opposition  to  Castalio,  the  advocate 
of  toleration — a  man  whom,  in  his  L-fe  of  Calvin, 
written  ten  years  later,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  style 
a  "  monster,"  who  "  by  advising  every  man  to  be- 
lieve what  he  chose,  opened  the  door  to  all  heresies 
and  false  doctrines."  Meanwhile,  no  more  singu- 
lar fact  could  be  instanced  in  this  connection  than 
that  the  Protestant  martyrs,  commonly  known  as 
the  **  Five  from  Geneva,"  while  daily  awaiting  death 
at  the  hands  of  the  executioner  for  their  religious 
opinions,  set  the  seal  of  their  unequivocal  approval 
on  the  sentence  meted  out  to  Michael  Servetus. 
One  of  their  number,  Antoine  Laborie,  himself  in- 
forms us  of  the  fact,  in  a  letter  written  shortly  before 
his  execution.  On  being  reminded  by  one  of  his 
judges  "  that  God  distinctly  commanded  through 
Moses,  that  heretics  should  be  most  severely  pun- 
ished," the  future  martyr  tells  us: 

"  I  readily  conceded  that  heretics  ought  certainly  to 
be  punished,  and  for  an  example  I  brought  up  that  im- 
pure dog  Servetus,  upon  whom  was  inflicted  the  last 
of  punishments  at  Geneva;  but  I  bade  them  be  very  cau- 
tious lest  they  should  treat  Christians  and  the  sons  of 
God  as  heretics."  ' 

'  Crespin,  Actiones  et  Moni7nenta  Martyrum,  fol.  291.  Rise  of 
the  Huguenots,  i.,  213,  297. 


CHAPTER  V 

ACTIVITY   AT    LAUSANNE 
1549-1558 

THE  life  of  Beza  at  Lausanne  was  far  from  being 
uneventful.  His  health,  which  we  have  seen 
was  precarious  when  he  accepted  his  responsible  post 
in  the  University  of  Lausanne,  not  without  fear  that 
it  might  tax  his  strength  beyond  his  powers  of  en- 
durance, was  subjected  to  a  severe  strain  by  an  attack 
of  one  of  those  strange  epidemics  which  were  in  the 
sixteenth  century  confusedly  spoken  of  as  "  the 
plague."  This  occurred  in  the  summer  of  1551, 
when  Beza  had  been  professor  for  less  than  two 
years.  Within  another  twelve  months  Providence 
laid  new  burdens  upon  him. 

Five  young  men,  all  of  them  Frenchmen  by  birth, 
who  had  been  studying  both  sacred  and  profane 
letters  at  his  feet  and  at  the  feet  of  his  colleagues 
for  a  longer  or  shorter  space  of  time,  conceived  the 
brave  project  of  suspending  their  studies  that  they 
might  visit  each  his  native  region  in  the  fatherland 
and  enlighten  their  own  friends  and  kindred  in  the 
truths  which  they  had  themselves  embraced.  It 
was  a  particularly  hazardous  venture  to  which  they 

7* 


72  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

felt  themselves  individually  called  by  God's  Holy 
Spirit ;  for  the  French  Protestants  had  fallen  on 
exceptionally  perilous  times.  The  cruel  Edict  of 
Chateaubriand  had  lately  been  enacted.  "  A  right 
of  appeal  to  the  highest  courts  has  hitherto  been 
granted,  and  still  is  granted,  to  persons  guilty  of 
poisoning,  forgery,  and  robbery,"  wrote  Calvin  re- 
specting the  new  law;  "  but  this  appeal  is  denied  to 
Christians.  They  are  condemned  by  the  ordinary 
judges  to  be  dragged  straight  to  the  flames,  without 
any  liberty  of  appeal."  '  To  forsake  the  hospitable 
halls  of  Lausanne  and  enter  France,  was  to  rush 
headlong  into  a  fiery  furnace.  One  of  the  five, 
Bernard  Seguin  by  name,  a  refugee  from  the  region 
of  Limousin,  had  been  an  inmate  of  Beza's  house, 
possibly  earning  his  livelihood  in  part  by  service.^ 
Another  had  lived  with  Viret.  But  so  far  from 
dissuading  them,  their  teachers  and  patrons  ap- 
plauded their  manly  and  Christian  resolve,  and  gave 
them  letters  commendatory  of  their  character  ad- 
dressed to  the  faithful  whom  they  might  meet. 
However,  the  immediate  issue  did  not  correspond 
with  their  expectations.  At  Lyons,  the  very  first 
place  of  importance  which  they  entered,  they  were 
arrested,  thrown  into  prison,  examined  on  the  capi- 
tal charge  of  heresy,  and  condemned  to  death.  It 
looked  like  a  sheer  waste  of  valuable  lives  which 
with  a  little  more  prudence  might  have  been  saved. 
In  truth,  however,  there  was  no  waste.      Contrary 


1  Calvin  to  Biillinger,  Oct.  15,  1551.      Calvini   Opera,  xiv.,   186- 
[88. 

2  See,  at  least,  Crespin,  Actioncs  (;t  Jllonimenta,  fol,  i36. 


PIERRE  VIRET. 


1552]  Activity  at  Lausanne  7z 

to  all  anterior  probability,  under  a  law  meant  to 
expedite  the  execution  of  dissidents  from  the 
Church  of  Rome,  they  were  kept  in  prison  for  over 
a  year.  During  all  that  time,  and  long  after,  the 
letters  that  they  wrote,  containing  minutes  of  the 
fearless  words  they  uttered  in  the  presence  of  every- 
thing that  would  naturally  have  terrified  weaker  men 
into  silence  or  submission,  thrilled  the  hearts  of 
multitudes  of  men  and  women  into  whose  hands 
they  fell.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  each  of  the  five 
"  scholars  of  Lausanne,"  writing  from  the  noisome 
dungeon  of  Lyons,  made  many  more  converts  than 
he  would  have  gained  had  he  been  permitted  to 
reach  his  home  and  preach  without  hindrance  to  his 
friends  and  neighbours. 

The  cause  of  the  delay  that  rendered  this  activity 
possible  is  to  be  found  in  the  influences  which  Beza 
and  Viret  were  able  to  set  in  motion.  The  young 
men  were  the  proteges  and  the  recipients  of  the 
bounty  of  the  powerful  Canton  of  Bern,  owner  of 
the  Pays  de  Vaud,  and  founder  of  the  University 
of  Lausanne.  To  secure  the  intercession  of  the 
Lords  of  Bern  with  the  French  King,  who  was  in 
need  of  Swiss  troops,  and  to  direct  the  efl"orts  of 
Bern  in  every  quarter  that  appeared  to  offer  promise 
of  success — this  was  the  incessant  study  of  Beza  and 
his  colleagues.  They  did  not  hesitate  to  go  in  per- 
son and  plead  before  the  magistracy  the  cause  of 
their  beloved  pupils.  If  all  their  efforts  and  all 
the  honest  endeavours  of  the  Bernese  failed  to  ac- 
complish the  release  of  the  captives,  the  fault  must 
be  laid  at  the  door  of  Henry  II.  and  of  Cardinal 


74  Theodore  Beza  [isig- 

Tournon,  rivals  in  the  ignoble  practice  of  violating 
assurances  and  promises  solemnly  given/ 

But  labours  such  as  this  episode  of  martyr  history- 
imposed  were  far  easier  to  be  endured  than  the  trial 
that  awaited  Beza  two  or  three  years  later.  I  have 
spoken  at  the  beginning  of  this  work  of  the  high 
position  of  the  Reformer's  family,  of  the  ambition  of 
his  father  and  uncles,  and  of  the  hopes  which  both 
father  and  uncles  based  upon  the  brilliant  abilities 
of  the  possession  of  which  Theodore  had  given 
proof.  Even  now,  although  four  or  five  years  had 
elapsed  since  his  withdrawal  from  France,  they 
could  not  bring  themselves  to  renounce  the  dream 
of  seeing  him  once  more  at  Paris,  well  started  upon 
a  career  that  would  add  great  lustre  and  wealth  to 
the  already  fortunate  family.  They  were  encouraged 
to  make  the  attempt  to  reclaim  him,  by  false 
rumours  that  his  success  abroad  had  by  no  means 
corresponded  with  his  anticipations,  and  that  they 
might  more  easily  persuade  him  because  he  was  a 
disappointed  man.  First,  therefore,  Theodore's 
elder  brother  John  presented  himself  unannounced 
at  Lausanne,  fully  prepared  to  offer  sufficient  in- 
ducements to  bring  the  exile  home.  If  Theodore 
was  surprised  by  his  unexpected  but  welcome  ad- 

^  The  Actiones  et  Monimenta  Martyrian  devotes  more  than  half  a 
book,  over  sixty-four  pages  (fols.  185-217),  to  the  heroic  story  of  the 
"Five  Scholars  of  the  Academic  of  Lausanne" — by  no  means  the 
least  interesting  portion  of  the  work.  The  "  Five  Scholars  of  Lau- 
sanne," who  perished  at  Lyons  in  1553,  must  not  be  confounded 
with  the  "Five  of  Geneva,"  who  were  put  to  death  in  1555,  at 
Chambery,  and  of  whose  equally  remarkable  endurance  Crespin  tells 
us,  ibid.^  fols,  283-321, 


1554]  Activity  at  Lausanne  75 

vent,  John  was  much  more  astonished  to  find 
Theodore  occupying  a  position  of  honour  and  influ- 
ence. Calumny  had  reported  him  to  be  living  a 
dissolute  life.  He  was  said  to  be  as  much  despised 
by  others  for  his  vices  as  he  was  himself  wanting  in 
self-respect.  On  the  contrary,  John  found  him  a 
prominent  citizen  of  Lausanne,  a  beloved  colleague 
of  scholars  of  high  repute,  a  teacher  enjoying  the 
confidence  of  his  pupils,  the  pride  of  a  great  school 
of  learning.  The  result  of  the  conference  of  the  two 
brothers  was  such  as  might  have  been  looked  for. 
"  You  must  before  this  have  heard  of  the  unexpected 
arrival  of  my  elder  brother,"  Beza  wrote  to  Calvin. 
"  He  came  to  institute  a  struggle  with  me,  in  which, 
thank  God!  I  was  so  successful  that  I  gained  access 
to  the  attainment  of  what  I  never  ventured  to  hope. 
Unfortunately,  we  have  no  further  information  re- 
specting the  interview  or  its  ulterior  results.  We 
only  know  that  from  Theodore  Beza's  last  will  and 
testament  it  would  appear  that  some  of  his  nephews 
had  been  brought  up  in  the  principles  of  a  pure 
Gospel.' 

The  conflict  was  not  over.  John  Beza  at  his  de- 
parture stated  to  Theodore  that,  in  case  his  persua- 
sions proved  ineffectual,  his  aged  father  would  come 
in  person  to  make  a  supreme  effort.  Accordingly, 
some  months  later,  father  and  son  met,  on  the  con- 
fines of  Franche-Comte.  The  Reformer  looked  for- 
ward with  no  little  trepidation  to  an  interview  of 
which,  if  he  did  not  fear  the  consequences,  so  far  as 
his  own   steadfastness  was  concerned,   he  dreaded 

'  Baum,  Theodor  Beza,  i.,  235. 


76  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  results  in  the  case  of  his  infirm  parent.     He 
therefore  wrote  to  Farel : 

"  I  have  received  a  fresh  message  respecting  my 
father,  which  gives  me  great  hope  that  either  he  will 
shortly  come  in  person  to  us,  or  that  I  shall  certainly 
meet  him  not  far  from  here.  Pray  for  me,  I  beg  you, 
that  I  may  not  be  compelled  to  be  the  minister  of 
death  to  him  through  whom  the  Lord  conferred  this  life 
upon  me,  and,  in  the  next  place,  that  against  the  impend- 
ing temptation,  the  most  severe  of  all,  my  strength  may 
suffice  that  I  may  truly  and  earnestly  ponder  what  the 
Lord  says:  *  Every  one  that  hath  forsaken  father  or 
mother  for  my  name's  sake,  shall  receive  an  hundred- 
fold and  shall  inherit  everlasting  life.'  For,  otherwise, 
who  am  I  that  I  should  resist  these  temptations  ?  But 
I  hope  to  be  able  to  do  both  this  and  all  things  through 
Him  who  is  in  truth  my  Father."  ^ 

About  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  Calvin  respecting 
the  same  matter: 

"  A  still  harder  struggle  threatens  me  with  my  father, 
whom  I  am  to  meet  in  five  days  on  the  borders  of  the 
[Tranche]  Comte.  May  God  give  me  grace,  as  I  hope 
in  Him,  not  only  to  withstand  courageously  his  powerful 
assaults  upon  my  heart,  but  to  win  him  over,  if  possible, 
for  my  Master.  More  than  all  other  threats  I  fear  that 
look,  the  caressing  prayers,  the  tears  of  the  father,  the 
old  man.  But  I  hope  that  here  also,  as  so  often  hereto- 
fore, my  compassionate  God  will  graciously  stand  by  me, 
that  all  may  redound  to  His  glory."  ^ 

'  Beza  to  Farel,  April  24  (1554).  Baum,  Thcod.  Beza,  i.,  doc, 
438. 

Vfrans.  in  Baum,  i.,  235,  236. 


1555]  Activity  at  Lausanne  T^ 

This  is  all  that  has  come  down  to  us  respecting 
the  last,  painful  interview  of  l^eza;  but  we  infer 
that  after  a  renewed  but  ineffectual  presentation  of 
all  the  motives  which  his  father  could  marshal,  both 
parent  and  child  returned  to  their  homes,  doubly 
sorrowful  because  neither  could  hide  it  from  himself 
that  their  conference  had  made  the  gulf  of  separa- 
tion between  them  wider  and  final. 

It  is  not  out  of  place  here  to  draw  attention  to  a 
feature  of  the  life  of  Beza  which  it  had  in  common 
with  the  lives  of  most,  if  not  indeed  of  all  the  rest, 
of  the  Reformers,  although  perhaps  to  a  higher  de- 
gree than  they.  The  work  which  they  were  originally 
summoned  to  undertake,  and  which  they  accepted 
under  the  impression  that  it  was  to  occupy  their  un- 
divided attention  for  the  residue  of  their  days,  so  far 
from  proving  to  be  their  sole  vocation,  was  only  one, 
and  often  by  no  means  the  most  important,  part  of 
their  future  activities.  When,  at  William  Farel's 
solicitations,  reinforced  by  his  solemn  and  awful 
commination,  John  Calvin  renounced  his  projected 
studies  elsewhere,  he  supposed  himself  to  be  assum- 
ing charge  of  the  reformation  of  the  single  city  of 
Geneva.  He  little  dreamed  of  the  vast  responsibili- 
ties, even  "  the  care  of  all  the  churches,"  that  lay 
ready  to  be  placed  upon  his  shoulders,  whether  he 
wished  to  bear  them  or  not.  In  like  manner,  Theo- 
dore Beza,  a  convalescent,  distrustful  of  his  strength 
to  do  even  this  work,  accepted  the  congenial  duties 
of  a  professorship  of  the  Greek  language  in  the 
University  of  Lausanne,  little  foreseeing,  we  must 
suppose,  that  his  chair  would  introduce  him,  natur- 


"jZ  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

ally  and  by  easy  stages,  to  an  incomparably  wider 
sphere  of  usefulness — that,  in  point  of  fact,  the 
university  class-room  was  to  serve  merely  as  the 
vestibule  of  a  grander  structure — that  from  a  teacher 
of  youth  it  was  to  make  of  him  a  powerful  advocate 
of  the  oppressed  brethren  of  his  own  faith,  at  a 
later  time  the  first  recognised  apologist  before  kings 
and  princes  of  the  principles  for  which  the  martyrs 
of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  France  had  ineffectu- 
ally striven  to  secure  a  hearing,  and  ultimately  the 
honoured  and  trusted  Counsellor  and  Leader  of 
French  Protestantism. 

It  was  in  the  years  now  under  consideration  that 
Beza  took  the  first  steps  in  this  direction. 

We  have  seen  how  the  circumstance  that  he  had 
been  their  teacher  induced  Beza  to  assume  a  prom- 
inent part  in  the  efforts  put  forth  to  save  the  lives 
of  beloved  pupils,  destined  victims  of  religious  in- 
tolerance. The  skill  he  manifested,  and  the  con- 
sciousness to  which  he  awoke,  that  his  mental 
characteristics,  his  liberal  training,  his  familiarity 
from  infancy  with  the  best  society,  his  cultivated 
manners,  and  his  easy  and  dignified  address  afforded 
him  special  facilities,  and  therefore  conferred  special 
responsibility,  for  representing  the  cause  of  the  op- 
pressed at  court  and  in  the  homes  of  the  powerful, 
opened  his  eyes  to  his  advantages  and  to  his  duty. 
As  a  natural  consequence,  from  this  time  forward, 
whenever  there  were  delicate  negotiations  to  be 
conducted  in  behalf  of  the  churches  of  his  faith,  the 
eyes  of  men  turned  with  ever-increasing  confidence 
to  Theodore  Beza  as  the  most  promising  man  in  the 


1557]  Acti\  ity  at  Lausanne  79 

Reformed  communion  to  conduct  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  Beza  himself  permitted  no  considera- 
tions of  private  comfort  or  ease  to  deter  him  from 
undertaking  a  work  often  tedious  and  burdensome, 
always  making  a  heavy  draft  upon  his  sympathy. 

His  first  attempt  in  this  direction  had  a  political 
as  well  as  a  religious  side.  The  alliance  between 
the  powerful  and  aggrandising  Canton  of  Bern  and 
the  far  less  extensive  and  independent  city  of  Geneva 
had  been  made  for  a  definite  number  of  years  and 
was  to  terminate  on  February  8,  1556.  It  was  by 
no  means  certain  that  the  ambitious  government  of 
the  former  state  would  renew  a  relation  from  which 
the  weaker  city  seemed  to  derive  all  the  benefit. 
Moreover,  Bern  had  more  than  once  made  it  clear 
that  there  was  no  lack  of  persons  powerful  in  its 
councils  who  would  gladly  extend  its  territory  to 
the  outlet  of  Lake  Leman  and  hold  Geneva  upon 
the  same  tenure  on  which  it  already  held  the  Pays 
de  Vaud.  If  this  project  should  fail,  there  were 
men  ready  to  recommend  the  acceptance  of  the 
offers  of  a  close  alliance  made  contemporaneously 
by  Duke  Emmanuel  Philibert  of  Savoy.  The  dan- 
ger to  Protestantism  was  imminent.  Forsaken  by 
Bern,  the  nearest  and  most  powerful  of  the  cantons 
in  which  the  Reformation  had  taken  root,  the  re- 
public of  Geneva,  the  object  of  the  implacable 
hatred  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  throughout  Europe,  could  not  have  failed 
to  be  ground  to  pieces  between  the  two  adjoining 
countries — France  and  Savoy — of  which  the  one  or 
the  other  seemed  destined  to  destroy  its  independent 


8o  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

existence.  The  danger  that  menaced  Geneva  was 
a  danger  menacing  Protestantism  entire,  and  Beza 
helped  to  avert  it,  by  exhibiting,  and  by  inducing 
others  to  exhibit,  to  those  in  power  the  conse- 
quences that  were  certain  to  follow  the  suicidal 
policy  of  disunion.  The  renewal  of  the  alliance  be- 
tween Bern  and  Geneva,  in  1557,  was  in  great  part 
the  result  of  Beza's  intercession  at  Zurich  and  with 
the  other  Protestant  cantons,  and  constituted  in 
itself  a  claim  to  the  gratitude  of  the  city  which  was 
soon  to  become  his  home  for  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  It  formed  a  new  link  in  the  chain  already 
binding  him  in  the  closest  friendship  to  John  Calvin. 
Meanwhile,  before  this  disquieting  question  had 
been  set  at  rest,  another  cause  of  solicitude  arose. 
The  valleys  inhabited  by  the  Waldenses,  or  Vau- 
dois,  of  Piedmont,  constituted  a  part  of  the  terri- 
tories taken  from  the  Duke  of  Savoy  by  Francis  I.  in 
1535.  During  the  score  of  years  which  the  French 
occupation  had  now  lasted,  the  inhabitants,  profess- 
ing to  be  in  full  accord  with  the  Protestants,  but 
claiming  that  they  had  held  their  pure  faith  for 
centuries  before  the  birth  of  Luther  and  even  from 
the  time  of  the  apostles,  enjoyed  a  respite  from 
persecution,  as  grateful  as  unlooked  for.  While  re- 
lentlessly vexing  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed 
faith  in  their  own  dominions,  Francis  I.  and  Henry 
11.  had  either  from  policy  abstained  from  similarly 
maltreating  the  professors  of  a  kindred  faith  in  the 
newly  acquired  domain,  or,  possibly,  had  forgotten 
the  very  existence  of  an  insignificant  body  of  dis- 
senters who  gave  them  no  trouble  in  a  time  of  gen- 


1556]  Activity  at  Lausanne  8i 

eral  confusion.  In  consequence  of  their  unwonted 
exemption  from  external  interference,  the  Vaudois 
began  to  make  a  freer  profession  of  their  faith,  to 
hold  more  public  religious  services,  and  to  seek  and 
obtain  the  services  of  twenty  or  more  preachers, 
many  of  them  trained  for  the  sacred  ministry  in 
Switzerland,  and  especially  at  the  school  of  Lau- 
sanne. In  the  Val  d'Angrogna,  in  particular,  they 
even  commenced  the  erection  of  houses  of  worship. 
Such  boldness  could  not  long  escape  notice.  The 
French  Parliament  of  Turin  sent  two  of  its  mem- 
bers, the  President  de  Saint  Julien  and  the  Counsel- 
lor Delia  Chiesa,  with  an  ample  escort  to  visit  the 
valleys  and  put  a  stop  to  the  progress  of  heresy. 
If  proclamations  could  have  effected  this,  the  men- 
aces addressed  to  those  that  refused  to  submit,  and 
the  rewards  offered  to  those  who  consented  to  em- 
brace the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  would  have  sufficed. 
But  the  Vaudois  either  forsook  their  homes  or  were 
deaf  alike  to  threats  and  to  entreaties.  This  was  in 
1556.  The  next  year  more  strenuous  measures  were 
instituted.  It  became  evident  that  nothing  short  of 
a  determined  effort  to  suppress  the  Vaudois  religion 
was  to  be  expected.  That  it  would  fail  miserably 
in  the  end,  as  all  similar  efforts,  before  that  time 
and  since,  have  failed,  was,  it  is  true,  almost  a  cer- 
tainty. A  Waldensian  martyr,  put  to  death  for  his 
constancy  twenty  years  before,  expressed  the  truth 
in  a  homely  fashion,  when,  just  before  his  execution 
and  being  already  bound  to  the  stake,  he  requested 
a  bystander  to  hand  him  two  stones,  and  having  re- 
ceived them  began  to  rub  the  one  against  the  other, 

6 


82  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

and  then  addressed  these  words  to  a  crowd  now 
curious  to  learn  the  significance  of  his  strange 
actions:  "  You  imagine  that  by  your  persecutions 
you  will  abolish  our  Churches,  but  that  will  be  no 
more  possible  for  you  than  it  is  possible  for  me  to 
destroy  these  stones  with  my  hands  or  by  eating 
them  up."  '  None  the  less  was  the  prospect  of  one 
of  those  massacres,  that  have  so  often  drenched  the 
Waldensian  mountain-sides  with  blood,  so  terrible 
that  no  time  was  lost  in  sending  forth  a  cry  of  dis- 
tress to  summon  all  friends  in  Switzerland  and  else- 
where to  the  rescue. 

Both  Geneva  and  Lausanne  heard  the  news  with 
pity  and  with  horror.  Among  the  destined  victims 
of  persecution  and  death  were  prominent  ministers 
of  whom  many  formerly  studied  theology  in  those 
cities  under  Calvin  and  Beza.  There  was  no  oppor- 
tunity for  long  consultation.  Someone  must  be 
promptly  despatched  to  arouse  the  four  great  Pro- 
testant cantons  and  the  Protestant  princes  of  south- 
ern Germany,  and  induce  them  to  use  the  privilege 
of  friends  or  allies  with  the  King  of  France,  by  re- 
monstrating against  the  execution  of  the  proscriptive 
measures  ordered  by  the  court.  That  man  must  be 
courageous,  energetic,  and  quick  and  fertile  in  ex- 
pedients. Above  all,  he  must  be  sufificiently  catholic 
in  his  views  to  be  able  to  conciliate  in  favour  of  the 
proposed  intervention  the  partisans  of  the  different 
shades  of  the  Reformed  faith  and  the  Lutherans, 
whether  broad  or  narrow  in  their  views.  He  must, 
moreover,  be  a  man  of  conspicuous  tact  and  address, 

*  Monastier,  Histoire  de  V ^glise  Vaudoisei^oyxiowst.,  1847),  i.,  210. 


1557]  Activity  at  Lausanne  S^ 

who  from  his  birth  and  associations  would  stand  un- 
abashed in  the  presence  of  princes  and  courtiers. 
Such  a  man  was  found  in  Theodore  Beza,  and  the 
choice  of  him  was  fully  justified  by  the  sequel. 
With  him  went,  as  fellow-envoy,  the  now  aged 
William  Farel,  the  memory  of  whose  masterful 
ministry  of  evangelisation  in  French-speaking  Swit- 
zerland and  in  the  neighbouring  parts  was  still  fresh 
in  men's  minds,  and  whose  rash  impetuosity,  if  not 
altogether  extinguished  by  added  years,  was  well 
kept  in  check  by  the  surer  judgment  of  his  younger 
colleague,  whom  he  thoroughly  respected  and  ad- 
mired. Bern  not  only  gave  leave  of  absence  to 
Beza,  but  provided  him  and  Farel  with  strong  let- 
ters of  recommendation  to  her  three  confederate 
cantons  of  Zurich,  Basel,  and  Schaffhausen.  In 
these  places,  as  everywhere  else,  Beza  was  the 
spokesman.  Being  unfamiliar  with  the  German 
language,  he  spoke  in  Latin,  the  universal  language 
of  courts  and  universities,  and  his  ornate  periods 
and  graceful  eloquence  secured  him  a  favourable 
hearing  from  all  the  learned.  When  it  was  neces- 
sary, the  Reformer  BuUinger,  of  Zurich,  and  others 
gladly  acted  as  interpreters.  With  the  support  of 
such  a  man  at  Zurich,  of  the  leading  pastor,  Sim- 
pert  Vogt,  at  Schaffhausen,  and  of  Simon  Sulzer  at 
Basel,  it  was  easy  to  bring  the  magistrates  to  look 
favourably  on  the  plan  of  sending  a  body  of  envoys 
from  the  four  evangelical  cantons  to  the  French 
court.  The  ' '  instruction  ' '  given  to  them  as  a  guide 
for  the  discharge  of  their  commission  in  a  delicate 
undertaking  has  come  down  to  us.     It  was  written 


84  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

by  Theodore  Beza,  and  is  the  first  and  a  very  favour- 
able example  of  his  papers  dealing  with  political 
affairs/ 

The  difficulties  increased  as  Beza  and  Farel  pur- 
sued their  way,  but  these  were  overcome.  At 
Montbeliard  —  capital  of  a  county  now  forming 
part  of  France — which,  many  years  before,  Farel 
and  Toussain  had  undertaken  to  evangelise  in  the 
midst  of  great  commotions,  they  found  the  place 
altogether  won  over  to  Protestantism,  but  they  also 
found  Toussain,  who  was  now  at  the  head  of  the 
Church,  not  only  decided  in  his  adhesion  to  the 
Lutheran  view  of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  opposed  to 
the  Zwinglian  or  to  the  Calvinistic,  but  particularly 
alienated  from  Geneva  and  pronounced  in  his  dis- 
approval of  the  execution  of  Servetus,  and  of  the 
apologies  written  in  justification  of  that  lamentable 
event.  This  did  not,  however,  in  the  end,  prevent 
Montbeliard  also  from  endorsing  and  heartily  recom- 
mending the  mission  of  the  envoys.  At  Strassburg 
Beza  was  welcomed  by  Frangois  Hotman.  This 
eminent  scholar,  his  attached  colleague  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Lausanne,  had,  a  year  or  two  since, 
accepted  a  chair  in  the  University  of  Strassburg. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  presence  of  the  venerable 
Farel,  who  had  written  nothing  to  offend  Lutheran 
susceptibilities,  proved  advantageous.  The  senate 
of  the  city  not  only  paid  him  and  Beza  other  flatter- 
ing attentions,  but  sent  Hotman  with  them,  mounted, 
and  with  mounted  guards  of  honour,  at  the  city's 
expense,  to  carry  two  letters,  the  one  addressed  to 

'  Text  in  Baum,   Thcodor  Beza,  i.,  doc,  401-405,  April,  1557. 


1557]  Activity  at  Lausanne  85 

Otto  Henry,  Elector  Palatine,  and  the  other  to 
Duke  Christopher  of  Wiirtcmberg.  Both  these 
princes  received  the  envoys  graciously,  the  former 
at  Baden,  where  he  was  sojourning  for  his  health's 
sake,  the  latter  at  Goppingen.  The  Elector  Pala- 
tine, desirous  of  making  the  German  intercession 
more  effective  with  the  PVench  king  by  the  addition 
of  the  influence  of  Hesse,  wrote  and  despatched  by 
a  special  nicssenger  of  his  own  a  letter  to  the  Land- 
grave, Philip  of  Hesse. 

An  object  which  Beza  had  incidentally  proposed 
to  himself  in  his  mission,  an  object  of  even  greater 
permanent  importance  to  Christendom  than  the 
rescue  of  the  Waldenses,  was  the  unification  of  Pro- 
testantism by  the  reconciliation  of  the  views  re- 
specting the  Lord's  Supper  held  by  the  two  great 
subdivisions  of  the  Protestant  world.  He  had 
conferred  at  Strassburg  with  the  superintendent  and 
doctor  of  theology,  John  Marbach.  At  Goppingen 
he  met  and  conversed  long  with  the  eminent  Jacob 
Andreae,  his  future  disputant  in  a  more  formal 
colloquy.  There  seemed  to  be  some  prospect  of 
substantial  agreement,  and,  as  the  references  to 
Calvin's  expressed  views  were  deemed  insufficient, 
Beza  was  induced  to  draw  up  a  new  and  brief  con- 
fession of  faith  touching  the  chief  point  in  contro- 
versy. Written  with  the  evident  desire  to  reduce 
to  a  minimum  the  difference  between  the  opinions 
of  Lutherans  and  Calvinists,  the  document  is  a  liter- 
ary and  religious  curiosity.  In  some  regards  it  may 
be  compared  with  those  extraordinary  articles,  with 
their  amazing  concessions,  which  Melanchthon  drew 


86  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

up,  a  quarter  of  a  century  earlier,  in  the  vain  hope 
of  being  able  to  bring  together  such  discordant 
views  as  those  of  Rome  and  those  of  the  adherents 
of  the  Reformation/  Calvin  and  Beza  undoubtedly 
rejected  the  opinion  of  Zwingli,  that  the  elements 
of  bread  and  wine  in  the  Eucharist  are  mere  signs. 
It  is  equally  certain  that  they  did  not  hold  with 
Luther  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  really 
present  in,  with,  and  under  the  bread-  and  wine, 
though  these  are  not  miraculously  transmuted  into 
very  flesh  and  blood.  But  it  must  be  confessed 
that,  in  the  Confession  now  under  consideration, 
as  we  shall  see,  Beza  approached  as  nearly  to  the 
Lutheran  view  as  it  was  possible  to  do  without  act- 
ually abandoning  the  Reformed  position. 

Both  the  Swiss  and  the  Germans  fulfilled  their 
promises  and  sent  envoys  to  France.  Their  recep- 
tion need  not  detain  us  long.  The  Swiss,  honest 
but  simple-minded  rustics,  were  kindly  but  some- 
what contemptuously  treated,  and  received  no 
definite  answer  to  their  plea  in  behalf  of  the  Wal- 
denses.  They  deserve  our  respect,  however,  for 
this,  at  least,  that  when  at  their  departure  King 
Henry  IL,  who,  through  Constable  Montmorency, 
had  previously  promised  them  each  a  gold  chain, 
now  sent  them  a  present  of  two  hundred  ducats, 
they  proved  themselves  to  be  no  mercenary  boors, 
by  indignantly  rejecting  the  proffered  bounty,  with 
the  exclamation:  "  We  seek  not  gold  nor  silver, 
but  the  safety   of   brethren  who  are  our  members 


[n  1534.     See  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  i.,  i6i,  162. 


1557]  Activity  at  Lausanne  ^7 

and  partakers  in  the  same  religion."  '  The  German 
envoys,  who  arrived  in  Paris  a  fidl  month  later  than 
the  Swiss,  represented  seven  Protestant  princes,  all 
of  them  entitled  to  high  consideration.  They  were 
instructed  to  impress  upon  the  King  of  France  the 
injury  to  his  reputation  which  the  report  of  the 
cruelties  exercised  upon  his  innocent  subjects  would 
produce.  They  were  also  to  urge  upon  his  Majesty 
the  necessity  of  instituting  an  impartial  investiga- 
tion, which  would  surely  establish  both  the  purit>' 
of  the  doctrinal  tenets  and  the  loyalty  of  the  perse- 
cuted. But  although  a  reply  was  made  to  the 
envoys,  in  the  monarch's  name,  it  was  of  no  very 
satisfactory  import.  For  it  plainly  betrayed  the 

annoyance  of  the  king  at  what  he  considered  an 
unnecessary  appeal  of  his  conquered  subjects  to 
their  sovereign's  friends,  and  confined  itself  to  the 
expression  of  a  hope  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Val 
d'Angrogna  would  henceforth  so  order  their  lives, 
like  the  rest  of  his  subjects,  as  not  to  compel  him  to 
exercise  severity  toward  them." 

Exactly  how  much  good  was  effected  by  the  Ger- 
man and  Swiss  intervention,  it  is  difficult  to  ascer- 
tain. Despite  his  affected  indifference,  Henry  and 
his  advisers  were  not  insensible  to  the  importance 
of  maintaining  a  good  understanding  with  their 
Protestant  neighbours  and  allies.  Beside  this,  how- 
ever, the  king  had  within  a  few  weeks  more  engross- 
ing and  perplexing  matters  on  hand.     On  August 

'  See  Baum,  i.,  273,  and  the  extract  of  a  letter  from  Bullinger  to 
Calvin,  given  ilnd.,  i.,  274,  note, 
2  Paum,  i.,  274. 


88  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

10,  1557,  his  army  was  defeated  with  great  loss  in  a 
pitched  battle  at  Saint  Quentin.  Constable  Mont- 
morency, who  commanded  it,  was  taken  prisoner. 
Paris  was  threatened.  It  was  no  time  to  think 
about  the  Vaudois  and  their  proposed  annihilation. 
The  project  was  dropped.  Less  than  two  years 
later,  by  the  treaty  of  Cateau  Cambresis  (on  April  3, 
1559),  the  Vaudois  valleys,  with  all  the  rest  of  Pied- 
mont, save  Turin  and  two  or  three  other  places, 
passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  French  and  were 
restored  to  their  rightful  sovereign,  the  Duke  of 
Savoy. 

This  was  but  the  first  of  three  successive  visits  of 
Beza  to  Germany  in  the  interest  of  his  oppressed 
fellow-believers.  From  the  Vaudois  or  Waldensian 
valleys  of  Piedmont  the  scene  of  persecution  shifted 
to  France  and  to  the  city  of  Paris  itself.  So  pre- 
carious was  the  situation  of  the  Protestants  of  the 
capital,  in  view  of  the  sanguinary  legislation  of 
Henry  II.,  that  although  their  number  was  by  no 
means  insignificant  and  was  daily  growing,  they 
dared  meet  only  by  night  and  with  the  utmost  se- 
crecy. Unhappily  a  nocturnal  gathering  held  in  a 
house  of  the  Rue  Saint  Jacques  was  surprised  by 
their  enemies,  and,  out  of  a  much  larger  number 
of  worshippers,  one  hundred  and  twenty  persons, 
mostly  women,  with  a  few  men  and  some  children, 
were  apprehended  and  dragged  to  prison.  Many  of 
them  were  shortly*  put  to  death,  and  the  mob  had 
the  gratification  of  beholding  such  a  sight  as  a 
Parisian  mob  never  tired  of  seeing — the  victims  of  its 
hatred,  some  of  them  young  women  and  respectable 


T557]  Activity  at  Lausanne  89 

matrons,  roasted  in  the  flames  of  the  cstrapade. 
The  political  juncture  was  particularly  inauspicious 
for  the  "  Lutherans,"  as  the  dissenters  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  were  still  styled.  Bigots 
represented  the  calamity  that  had  lately  befallen 
the  kingdom  in  the  defeat  of  Saint  Quentin  as  a 
direct  punishment  for  its  sin  in  tolerating  heresy, 
and  stirred  up  the  populace  to  welcome  any  new 
blow  aimed  at  the  Protestants.  The  latter,  terrified 
by  what  had  befallen  their  brethren,  and  apprehen- 
sive of  what  might  still  be  in  store,  anxious  above 
all  to  save  the  lives  of  the  prisoners  from  their  im- 
pending fate,  sent  in  haste  to  Geneva  to  acquaint 
Calvin  with  the  new  disaster  and  to  beg  that  every- 
thing should  be  done  to  enlist  the  interest  of 
neighbouring  Protestant  States.  Again  was  Beza 
chosen,  in  conjunction  with  the  aged  Farel  and  with 
Budaeus  and  Carmel,  to  lay  the  pitiful  case  of  the 
French  before  as  many  as  would  listen  to  their  cry 
of  distress.  Not  once  but  twice  did  the  Reformer 
leave  Lausanne  and  exert  himself  to  the  utmost  to 
bring  both  Swiss  cantons  and  German  princes  to 
prompt  and  decisive  intercession.  The  direct  re- 
sults were  not  overencouraging.  The  Swiss  envoys 
when  they  reached  the  court  of  France  allowed 
themselves  to  be  so  completely  hoodwinked  by  the 
Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  always  rich  in  promises  of 
support,  that  leaving  all  to  him  they  found  them- 
selves in  the  end  dismissed  by  the  monarch  with  a 
message  to  the  effect  that  he  had  expected  that 
Zurich,  Bern,  Basel,  and  Schaffhausen  would  be 
content  with  his  response  to  them  in  the  matter  of 


90  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  Waldenses  of  Angrogna,  and  abstain  from  send- 
ing him  ambassadors  on  a  similar  occasion,  as  they 
had  now  done.  At  any  rate,  he  begged  his  "  very 
dear  and  good  friends  "  from  this  time  forth  to  give 
themselves  no  care  or  solicitude  respecting  what  he 
might  do  in  his  kingdom,  since  he  was  resolved  to 
maintain  his  religion  therein  as  the  most  Christian 
kings,  his  predecessors,  had  done.  In  this  matter, 
he  said,  he  had  to  give  an  account  of  his  actions  to 
no  one  but  to  God.^  The  Elector  Palatine  wrote  a 
letter  which  seems  to  have  had  some  effect  in  secur- 
ing a  lull  in  the  persecution.  Others,  especially 
good  Christopher  of  Wiirtemberg,  did  the  same. 
But  the  German  princes  were  not  always  moved  to 
prompt  and  effective  action.  The  old  disunion  be- 
tween Lutherans  and  Reformed  had  not  been  suf- 
fered to  die  out  by  the  zeal  of  the  theologians  who 
looked  askance  at  the  orthodoxy  of  their  Swiss 
brethren  and  were  disposed  to  magnify  rather  than 
to  attenuate  the  disastrous  differences  of  Luther 
and  Zwingli,  now  that  Luther  and  Zwingli  had  long 
been  in  their  graves.  It  seemed  to  Beza  an  oppor- 
tune time  to  labour  to  conciliate  the  favour  of  the 
Germans,  by  showing  them  that  the  persecuted 
French  Protestants  whom  they  were  entreated  to 
help  were  no  heretics,  but  brethren  in  substantial 
agreement  with  themselves  as  to  the  essential  truths 
of  the  Reformation  held  in  Germany.  In  common 
with  his  colleagues,  therefore,  he  laid  before  Me- 
lanchthon,    Brentius,    Marbach,    Andreae,    and    the 

^  The  king's  answer,  November  5,  1557,  in  Bull.,  i.,  166.     AVjy 
of  the  Huguenots ,  i.,  309,  310, 


1558] 


Activity  at  Lausanne  9^ 


other  most  prominent  representatives  of  Lutheran 
theology,  at  their  gathering  at  Worms,  a  written 
exposition  of  the  tenets  of  the  French  Churches,  of 
so  irenic  a  character  that  the  divergences  seemed 
not  merely  smoothed  down,  but  almost  obliterated. 
In  all  the  Augsburg  Confession  of  1530,  they  found 
but  one  article  which  was  not  in  agreement  with 
their  own  Confession  and  which  they  did  not  accept 
—namely,  the  article  respecting  the  Lord's  Stopper. 
Even  the  difficulties  in  this  article  they  thought 
could  be  removed  by  a  conference  of  learned  and 
pious  men.  Meanwhile,  they  declared  that  "  they 
had  never  believed,  nor  had  they  taught,  that  the 
Lord's  Supper  is  merely  a  sign  of  profession,  as  the 
Anabaptists  believe,  or  merely  a  sign  of  the  absent 
Christ."  ' 

A  few  months  before,  while  on  the  embassy  to 
plead  the  cause  of  the  Waldenses,  Beza,  speaking 
for  himself  and  for  Farel,  expressed  himself  no  less 
strongly,  in  a  confession  of  faith  which  he  handed 
to  the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg,  at  Goppingen,  as  set- 
ting forth  the  doctrine  held  by  the  Churches  of  Swit- 
zerland and  Savoy,  or  Piedmont.'  A  sentence  or 
two  from  this,  the  first  of  Beza's  utterances  respect- 
ing the  Lord's  Supper,  it  may  be  well  to  quote,  in 
order  to  show  the  length  to  which  the  Reformer 
was  willing  to  go  in  the  effort  to  find  a  common 
ground  on  which  to  stand  with  his  German  brethren  : 

1  "Confessio  Doct.  Eccles.  Gallic.  Exhibita  Theologis  August. 
Confess,  in  Collog.  Wormatiensi."  Baum.  doc,  i.,  409-411-  Dated 
October  8,  1557. 

2  Beza's  first  "  Apology,"  addressed  to  Claude  de  Sainctes  (1567), 
in   Tract.   T/ieol.,  ii.,  295. 


9^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

"  We  confess  that  in  the  Lord's  Supper  not  only  all 
the  benefits  of  Christ,  but  also  the  very  substance  of  the 
Son  of  man — I  say,  that  true  flesh  which  the  everlasting 
Word  took  into  perpetual  unity  of  person,  in  which  He 
was  born  and  suffered  for  us,  rose  and  ascended  into  the 
heavens,  and  that  true  blood  which  He  shed  for  us — are 
not  merely  signified,  or  set  forth  symbolically,  figura- 
tively, or  typically,  as  the  memorial  of  an  absent  person, 
but  are  truly  and  certainly  represented,  exhibited,  and 
offered  to  be  applied,  there  being  added  to  the  thing 
itself  symbols  that  are  by  no  means  bare  symbols,  but 
such  that,  so  far  as  appertains  to  God's  promise  and 
offer,  they  always  have  the  thing  itself  truly  and  certainly 
conjoined,  whether  they  be  set  forth  to  believers  or  to 
unbelievers."  ^ 

It  is  not  surprising  that,  in  his  attempt  to  gain 
over  the  German  Protestants,  Beza  should  have  in- 
curred not  a  little  risk  of  alienating  his  own  friends 
in  Switzerland.  His  apparent  concessions  to  Lu- 
theran views  were  highly  distasteful  to  the  adherents 
of  the  Zwinglian  theology,  and  Bullinger,  the  Re- 
former of  Zurich,  had  succeeded  not  only  to  the 
influence  but  in  a  great  measure  to  the  views  of 
Zwingli.  Endeared  as  he  was  to  Beza  by  ties  of 
cordial  affection  and  good-will,  Bullinger  could  not 
but  view  the  utterances  of  Beza  at  Goppingen  with 
grave  apprehension,  as  indicative  of  a  danger  of 
schism  among  Swiss  Churches  thus  far  harmonious. 
Calvin  understood  his  friend  better  and  poured  oil 


'  "  Confessio  Fidei  Doctrinreque  de  Coena  Domini  Exhibita  Illus- 
triss.  Princ.  Virtemberg.,  Authoribus  Th.  Beza  et  Guilhelmo 
Farello."     Baum,  doc,  i.,  406,  407.     Dated  May  14,  1557. 


1557]  Activity  at  Lausanne  93 

on  the  troubled  waters.  "  As  there  is  no  lurking 
danger  in  Beza's  confession,"  he  wrote  to  Bullinger, 
August  7,  1557,  "  I  readily  excuse  him,  because,  in 
consideration  of  the  brethren,  with  studied  modera- 
tion he  has  striven  to  reconcile  fierce  men  ;  especially 
as  he  previously  distinctly  explained  all  his  different 
meanings."  '  But  Bullinger  was  not  fully  appeased 
even  by  Calvin's  intercession,  and  Beza's  efforts  to 
reconcile  Lutherans  and  Reformed  by  reducing  to 
an  apparent  minimum  the  differences  that  kept 
them  apart,  gave  rise  to  an  interchange  of  letters 
between  Lausanne  and  Zurich,  extending  over  a 
number  of  months,  which  even  now  may  be  read 
with  profit.  Upon  Beza's  project  of  a  conference 
to  be  held  with  the  view  of  harmonising  discordant 
views  upon  the  matter  under  consideration,  Bullinger 
looked  with  scant  favour.  He  accepted  with  kind- 
ness the  explanations  of  his  meaning  which  Beza, 
sincerely  sorry  to  have  incurred  the  disapproval  of 
so  excellent  a  friend,  made  at  great  length  in  suc- 
cessive epistles,  and  he  conceded  frankly  the  desir- 
ability of  mutual  love  and  holy  concord  between  the 
servants  of  a  common  Master. 

"  Meanwhile,"  said  he  and  his  colleagues,  the  pastors 
and  doctors  of  the  Church  of  Zurich,  "  it  is  not  any  and 
every  sort  of  a  concord  that  we  long  for;  but  a  concord 
that  is  religious,  moderate,  conflicting  in  nothing  with 
the  pure  truth  hitherto  professed,  introducing  no  ob- 
scurity or  doubt  into  manifest  light  and  perspicuous 
doctrine,   a  concord  which  on  account  of  its  clearness 


Calvin  to  Bullinger,  Aug.  7,  1557.     Bonnet,  iii.,  345. 


94  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

shall  be  common  and  welcome  to  all  the  pious,  abiding 
and  stable,  and  that  shall  scatter  abroad  no  new  begin- 
nings of  fresh  dissensions."  ^ 

Thus  it  was  that  Theodore  Beza's  attempt  to 
effect  a  reconciliation  between  the  warring  elements 
within  the  bosom  of  Protestantism  itself,  aroused 
the  suspicion,  and  drew  upon  him  the  animadver- 
sion, of  many  of  his  own  most  sincere  friends.  So 
had  Melanchthon's  equally  well-meant  project  of 
bringing  together  again  the  Roman  Catholic  and 
Protestant  Churches,  two-  or  three-and-twenty  years 
earlier,  drawn  upon  him  the  displeasure  of  the  greater 
part  of  those  who  learned  of  it.^  As,  however,  Philip 
Melanchthon  comforted  himself,  when  accused  of 
being  a  deserter  to  the  Protestant  cause,  not  only 
by  the  consciousness  of  his  integrity  of  purpose  but 
by  the  support  and  approval  of  Martin  Luther,  so 
did  Theodore  Beza  find  ample  compensation  for  the 
not  altogether  unreasonable  annoyance  expressed 
by  others,  in  the  unswerving  confidence  extended 
to  him  by  the  great  Reformer  of.  Geneva.  For  to 
Calvin  he  felt  a  devotion  not  inferior  to  that  which 
characterised  the  relation  of  the  younger  of  the 
Wittenberg  theologians  to  his  father  in  the  Lord. 
Both  Beza  and  Melanchthon,  if  unsuccessful  in  ac- 
complishing the  desired  union,  had  this  consolation, 
at  least,  that  their  labours  had  been  expended  in 
the  most   honourable   and   humane   of   causes,   the 


^  The  Pastors  and  Professors  of  Theology,  Ministers  of  the  Church 
of  Zurich,  to  Beza  at  Lausanne,  Dec.  15,  1557.     Baum,  doc,  i.,  503. 
■^  See  Rise  of  the  Hziguenots,  i.,  186. 


1558]  Activity  at  Lausanne  95 

endeavour  to  realise  the  great  purpose  of  the  com- 
mon Lord  of  all  Christian  people,  that  they  might 
be  one  even  as  He  and  His  Father  were  one.  And 
both  Melanchthon  and  Beza  were  specially  inspired 
by  an  earnest  desire  and  hope  thereby  to  put  an 
end  to  the  further  effusion  of  blood  at  the  hands  of 
those  professing  the  same  Christian  faith. 


CHAPTER  VI 

BEZA  BECOMES   CALVIN'S  COADJUTOR  AND  RECTOR 
OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  GENEVA 

1558,   1559 

IN  the  year  1558,  Beza  resigned  the  professorship 
which  he  had  held  for  a  little  short  of  nine  years, 
to  accept  a  chair  in  the  new  institution  which  Calvin 
had  long  been  anxious  to  found  at  Geneva,  for  the 
promotion  of  higher  learning,  but,  especially,  of 
theological  science. 

His  course  in  Lausanne  had  been  brilliant  and 
successful.  Of  this  there  could  be  no  question. 
He  had  discharged  the  duties  of  his  office  with 
signal  ability  and  faithfulness,  and  had  been  re- 
warded for  his  toil  not  only  by  the  applause  of  the 
learned,  but  by  a  marked  increase  in  the  number  of 
his  pupils.  From  a  mere  handful  of  students,  the 
Academic  of  Lausanne  had  come  to  boast  an  at- 
tendance of  seven  hundred.'  To  this  development 
no  instructor,  not  even  Francois  Hotman,  the  dis- 
tinguished jurisconsult,  during  his  connection  with 
the  University,  had  contributed  so  much  as  Beza. 
The  magnetism  of  the  Reformer's  personality,  the 

^  Beza  to  Farel,  April  29,  1558,  in  Baum,  doc,  i.,  519. 
96 


1558]       Becomes  Calvin's  Coadjutor        97 

profound  impression  made  from  the  very  start  by 
his  wonderful  erudition,  his  wide  acquaintance  with 
classical  as  well  as  sacred  antiquity,  his  growing 
reputation  not  only  as  a  controversialist,  but  as  a 
man  honoured  in  the  councils  of  the  leading  Pro- 
testant  powers  of  Switzerland  and  Germany  and 
entrusted  with  the  advocacy  of  the  claims  of  the 
persecuted  both  of  France  and  Piedmont, — all 
enhanced  in  the  eyes  of  the  studious  the  attraction 
of  the  school  of  learning  of  which  he  was  a  chief 
ornament. 

Why,  then,  did  Beza  consent  to  leave  a  position 
so  enviable  and  of  such  extensive  usefulness  ?  The 
answer  to  the  question  is  found  partly,  at  least,  in 
the  unfortunate  condition  of  discord  and  embarrass- 
ment of  the  Church  of  Lausanne.  The  union  of 
Church  and  State,  always  a  source,  if  not  of  actual, 
yet  certainly  of  possible  trouble,  is  most  productive 
of  mischief  in  a  region  which  itself  is  dependent 
upon  another  region, its  superior  by  right  of  conquest 
or  by  some  other  form  of  proprietorship.  The  nat- 
ural and  healthy  development  of  the  Reformation 
at  Lausanne  was  hampered  by  the  suzerainty  of 
Bern.  It  might  perhaps  have  triumphed  over  the 
lukewarmness  or  positive  enmity  of  the  irreHgious 
part  of  the  subject  city;  it  was  impotent  when  that 
element  of  the  population  was  encouraged  by  the 
avowed  determination  of  the  paramount  authority 
to  tolerate  no  innovation  in  the  accepted  order  of 
things.  The  Reformer,  Pierre  Viret,  had,  many  years 
before,  taken  an  important  part  in  the  preparatory 
work  that  led  to  the  religious  change  of  Geneva  in 


9^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

advance  of  Calvin's  advent,  and  had  subsequently 
been  for  a  time  one  of  the  ministers  of  that  city. 
He  was  now  and  had  long  been  the  leading  pastor 
9f  Lausanne.  It  was  he,  as  has  been  seen,  that  in- 
duced Theodore  Beza  to  accept  the  chair  he  had 
held  with  honour  to  the  city  and  with  credit  to  him- 
self. A  man  of  solid  attainments  and  of  sterling 
worth,  he  was  at  the  same  time  as  impetuous  and 
uncompromising  as  Farel  had  been  in  his  youth, 
and  had  learned  none  of  the  prudence  that  had  come 
to  Farel  with  advancing  years.  The  laxity  of 
morals  of  a  city  many  of  whose  inhabitants  utterly 
failed  to  recognise  the  external  change  of  religion  as 
affecting  their  personal  and  social  life,  had.  long 
weighed  upon  Viret's  heart  and  conscience.  To 
adrnit  to  a  participation  in  the  most  sacred  of  Christ- 
ian rites  men  and  women  of  whose  unfitness  there 
could  be  no  doubt,  and  who  seemed  so  much  the 
more  anxious  to  present  themselves  as  their  coming 
was  opposed  by  all  the  good,  seemed  to  him  as  a 
pastor  to  be  an  unjustifiable  act  of  complicity  in  a 
criminal  profanation.  He  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to 
it.  Having  by  his  afdent  zeal  brought  his  col- 
leagues over  to  his  opinions,  he  gave  notice  that  at 
the  coming  Easter  the  customary  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  would  not  be  observed.  He  would 
not  desecrate  the  most  sublime  and  holy  ordinance 
in  heaven  or  on  earth.  He  and  his  fellow-ministers 
demanded  nothing  less  than  the  institution  of  a 
system  of  Church  government  such  as  had  been  suc- 
cessfully established  in  Geneva  and  had  made  of  a 
city  noted  for  the  dissoluteness  of  its  denizens  the 


1558]       Becomes  Calvin's  Coadjutor        99 

model  State  and  Church  of  Christendom.  Instead 
of  the  promiscuous  admission  to  the  Lord's  Supper 
of  all  applicants,  whatever  their  knowledge  or  ig- 
norance, their  consistency  or  inconsistency  of  de- 
portment, he  demanded  the  erection  of  a  Church 
consistory,  or  session,  with  power  of  discipline  rang- 
incr  from  the  mildest  admonition  even  to  formal  ex- 

o 

communication.  The  better  and  more  earnest  part  of 
the  people,  especially  the  fugitives  from  persecution 
in  France,  welcomed  his  efforts.  But  these  efforts 
met  with  strenuous  opposition  from  such  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Lausanne  as  looked  back  with  regret  to 
the  days  when,  under  the  rule  of  the  former  bishops 
of  the  place,  there  was  little  or  no  inquiry  into  the 
life  of  the  laity,  or  even  of  the  clergy.  The  resident 
representatives  of  Bern  gave  to  Viret's  opponents 
the  support  of  their  authority.  With  a  view  to  the 
removal  of  exciting  topics  from  the  pulpit,  Bern 
particularly  forbade  the  public  discussion  of  the 
subject  of  Predestination.  Four  clergymen  of 
Thonon,  believing  it  to  be  their  duty,  despite  the 
prohibition,  to  preach  on  the  doctrine  in  question, 
were  deprived  of  their  places  by  the  government. 
The  classis  of  Bern  replied  by  demanding  freedom 
of  preaching  and  a  form  of  Church  government  not 
unlike  that  of  Geneva,  declaring  that  unless  it  were 
granted  they  could  not  with  a  clear  conscience  con- 
tinue to  exercise  their  churchly  functions.  There- 
upon the  chief  magistrate  and  council  of  Bern 
resolved  to  show  the  world  who  was  master  in  the 
Pays  de  Vaud,  and  formally  cited  by  name  all  the 
preachers  and  professors  to  appear  in  person  before 


TOO  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

them  in  the  city  of  Bern,  on  or  before  a  given  date, 
to  receive  an  answer  to  the  **  articles  "  in  which  their 
demands  had  been  couched.  So  rough  a  summons 
addressed  to  the  clergy  and  professors  of  the  subject 
city  was  itself  an  indignity ;  the  answer  which  they 
received  amounted  almost  to  positive  insult.  For 
while  Viret  and  his  associates  were  graciously  in- 
formed that  they  might  preach  about  Predestination 
if  they  had  a  natural  occasion  to  do  so  and  if  they 
preached  in  a  moderate  and  edifying  manner,  they 
were  not  encouraged  to  look  for  any  such  improve- 
ment in  the  administration  of  the  Church  as  they 
had  declared  indispensable  to  the  continuance  of 
the  discharge  of  their  offices.  In  fact,  the  Bernese 
council  demanded  a  categorical  reply,  upon  the 
morrow,  as  to  what  the  pastors  and  professors  in- 
tended to  do.  They,  moreover,  intimated  that,  if 
the  latter  persisted  in  the  declaration  they  had  made 
to  the  effect  that  in  case  all  their  requests  were  not 
granted  they  must  ask  leave  to  lay  down  their 
offices,  they  would  not  only  be  allowed  to  do  so, 
but  forthwith  be  banished  from  the  country. 

Beza,  himself  no  friend  of  extreme  measures,  had 
originally  disapproved  Viret's  course  and  main- 
tained a  middle  ground,  entertaining  relations  of 
kindly  intercourse  with  both  parties.  He  doubtless 
hoped  that,  in  the  course  of  time  and  without  re- 
sort to  an  attitude  of  such  pronounced  hostility  to 
the  ruling  power,  the  desired  advantages  might  be 
secured  through  the  milder  methods  of  persuasion 
and  greater  enlightenment.  That  he  was  lukewarm 
or  underrated   the  importance  of  the  points  upon 


I55S]       Becomes  Calvin's  Coadjutor      toi 

which  Virct  insisted,  is  disproved  not  only  by  his 
subsequent  attitude  when  at  the  head  of  the  Church 
of  Geneva,  but  by  the  vigour,  zeal,  and  ability  with 
which  in  this  very  year  (1558)  he  maintained  in  an 
extended  answer  to  Sebastian  Castalio,  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  everlasting  predestination  of  God  is 
the  sole  foundation  of  man's  salvation/  He  had 
been  induced,  reluctantly  and  against  his  better 
judgment,  to  acquiesce  in  the  course  taken  by  his 
more  radical  brethren,  lest  he  might  appear  to  have 
deserted  them  at  a  critical  juncture.  He  thus 
came  to  share  in  the  humiliating  journey  to  Bern 
and  the  insolent  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  chief 
magistrate  and  council.  These  last  circumstances, 
however,  were  not  needed  to  complete  Beza's  dis- 
gust with  the  situation  of  affairs  at  Lausanne.  Long 
before  their  occurrence,  he  had  fully  made  up  his 
mind  to  sever  his  relations  with  the  University  and 
to  accept  the  more  congenial  work  to  which  Calvin 
invited  him  and  in  the  discharge  of  which  he  had 
the  alluring  prospect  of  association  with  the  great 
Reformer  whom  of  all  men  he  honoured  and  loved 
most.'     Viret  might  be  annoyed  at  the  determina- 


'  It  is  the  treatise  entitled  "Ad  Sebastiani  Castellionis  calumnias," 
etc.,  reprinted  in  the  collected  Tract.  Theolog.,  i.,  337-424. 

2  The  citation  to  Bern  was  dated  on  the  first  of  August,  1558.  See 
the  document  in  Baum,  i.,  348.  Beza,  in  a  letter  to  Calvin  written 
on  the  twenty-fourth  of  the  preceding  November,  had  already  be- 
trayed his  disapprobation  of  Viret's  methods  and  his  intention  to  use 
his  own  freedoip  more  fully  than  heretofore  {ibid.,  i.,  349),  A  letter 
of  Calvin,  August  29,  1558,  informs  us  that  Beza,  having  sent  on  his 
household  effects  before  him,  was  expected  in  Geneva  within  two 
days.      Calvini  Opera,  xvii.,  30S. 


102  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

tion  of  his  colleague,  and  might  blame  him  for 
abandoning  a  post  which  Viret  himself  had  by  his 
ill-judged  course  contributed  to  make  unendurable 
for  a  high-spirited  gentleman,  indeed,  for  a  man  of 
ordinary  self-respect;  he  could  not  induce  Beza  to 
reconsider  his  action  or  consent  to  prolong  his  stay 
in  a  city  where  he  might  look  for  the  repetition  of 
scenes  such  as  he  had  of  late  witnessed.  The  event 
fully  justified  his  action.  Within  a  few  months, 
Viret  and  the  greater  part  of  his  associates  in  Church 
and  University  were  themselves  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  following  Beza's  example.  Within  that 
time  the  decadence  of  the  institution  to  which 
Beza's  learning  had  lent  a  temporary  lustre  set  in. 
Thus  Lausanne  lost  its  great  opportunity  of  per- 
manently possessing  the  school  for  the  training  of 
the  Christian  athletes  who  were  to  achieve  wonders 
in  the  cause  of  French  Protestantism  down  to  the 
time  of  the  disastrous  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  (1685).  How,  after  that  event,  Lausanne 
regained  a  certain  prestige  in  the  times  of  the 
Church  of  the  Desert,  it  does  not  belong  to  us  to 
relate  here.^ 

As  for  Beza  himself,  he  said  nothing,  either  at  the 
time  or  subsequently,  that  might  seem  to  reflect 
upon  Pierre  Viret,  a  man  who  had  in  the  past  de- 
served well  of  the  Reformation,  and  was  destined 
still  to  do  good  service,  both  in  Geneva  and  in  the 
Church  of  Lyons,  a  man  to  whom  he  was  attached 


'  See  the  account  of  the  establishment  of  the  theological  seminary 
of  Lausanne  by  Antoine  Court,  in  1730,  in  my  history,  The  Hugue- 
nots and  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  ii.,  462,  463. 


1558]       Becomes  Calvin's  Coadjutor       103 

by  strong  ties  of  affection.  In  his  letter  to  Wolmar, 
within  a  year  and  a  half  later,  he  confines  himself  to 
the  statement,  that  at  the  end  of  his  stay  at  Lau- 
sanne, he  returned,  with  the  kind  consent  of  the 
council  of  Bern,  to  Geneva,  partly  because  he  was 
desirous  of  giving  himself  wholly  to  theology,  partly 
for  other  reasons  which  it  was  unnecessary  to  re- 
hearse. And  he  adds  that,  not  so  much  of  his  own 
choice,  as  by  the  advice  of  men  of  great  eminence, 
he  was  induced  at  Geneva  to  undertake  the  office  of 
the  sacred  ministry.' 

In  Geneva  Theodore  Beza  was  at  last  in  the  spot 
where  for  years,  because  of  his  increasing  friendship 
and  intimacy  with  John  Calvin,  he  had  found  his 
chief  intellectual  and  moral  support  and  sympathy. 
Geneva  is  not  distant  much  over  thirty  miles  in  a 
straight  line  from  Lausanne,  and  the  lake,  then  as 
now,  afforded  an  easy  and  pleasant  route.  The 
proximity  of  the  two  cities  to  one  another  had  en- 
couraged the  younger  man  to  make  frequent  visits 
to  his  old  schoolfellow,  now  become  an  associate  in 
the  work  of  the  Reformation.  It  was  time,  how- 
ever, that  two  such  kindred  spirits  should  no  longer 
be  separated  even  by  so  trifling  a  distance.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  irrespective  of  his  plans  for 
making  use  of  Theodore  Beza's  extraordinary 
scholarship  for  the  upbuilding  of  his  projected  uni- 
versity, Calvin  had  before  this  begun  to  look  to  Beza 
as  the  most  suitable  man  to  succeed  to  the  great 
and  multiform  duties  which  Providence  had  thrown 
upon  him.      It  is  true  that  Calvin  himself  was  not 

'  See  Appendix, 


I04  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

yet  fifty  years  old,  and  might,  so  far  as  age  was  con- 
cerned, have  had  the  prospect  of  a  long  course  of 
activity.  But  his  constitution,  never  robust,  was 
enfeebled  by  prodigious  study  and  devotion  to  the 
claims  of  others.  At  an  age  when  many  a  scholar 
is  full  of  strength  and  vigour,  Calvin  thought  it 
none  too  soon  to  seek  for  a  younger  man  to  be  a 
sharer  of  his  toil  and  the  prospective  heir  of  an  in- 
heritance of  unremitting  solicitude  for  the  welfare 
of  the  churches. 

The  plan  of  Calvin  for  the  "Academic  "  of  Geneva 
contemplated  nothing  less  than  the  erection  of  a 
true  university — a  daring  undertaking  in  a  little 
commonwealth  of  a  few  thousand  souls,  poor  in 
resources,  and  threatened  by  powerful  neighbours. 
The  founders  were  compelled  to  solve  a  difificult 
problem  as  to  the  source  from  which  the  necessary 
funds  could  be  obtained.  It  is  a  significant  circum- 
stance that  contemporaneously  with  the  purchase  of 
a  site  for  the  school,  there  was  published  an  order 
of  the  magistrates  of  the  little  republic,  command- 
ing all  notaries  to  exhort  those  persons  who  might 
thereafter  employ  them  to  draw  up  wills,  to  make 
bequests  for  the  institution.'  As  Geneva  had 
hitherto  possessed  no  school  for  higher  learning,  a 
**  College,"  or  Gymnasium,  was  also  created,  for  the 
purpose   of  affording  preparatory   training   for   the 

1  "  On  the  17th  of  January  [1558],"  says  an  extract  from  the  public 
records  of  the  republic  of  Geneva,  given  by  Baum,  i,,  350,  "a  col- 
lege was  established.  A  college  [building]  was  erected  at  Les  Htttuts 
de  Bolomier  ;  seven  classes  were  started,  and  three  professors  insti- 
tuted :  one  in  theology,  one  in  philosophy,  and  one  in  Greek.  Order 
was  given  to  all  notaries  to  exhort  testators  to  give  to  the  college." 


I559J       Becomes  Calvin's  Coadjutor       105 

Academic,  or  University  proper,  thus  replacing  a 
more  modest  school  once  taught  by  Mathurin  Cor- 
derius,  of  whom  I  have  already  spoken,  a  scholar 
whose  Colloquies  were  long  in  vogue,  as  a  manual  for 
the  drill  of  the  young  in  the  familiar  use  of  the 
Latin  language.  The  study  of  Latin  literature  was 
assiduously  pursued  in  the  College  and  found  no 
place  in  the  Academic.  In  the  latter  a  close  ac- 
quaintance with  the  exclusive  tongue  of  the  learned 
was  an  absolute  prerequisite;  for  who  could  profit 
by  instruction  given  in  a  language  which  he  under- 
stood not  at  all  or  but  imperfectly  ?  Of  the  depart- 
ments of  a  university  only  the  School  of  Theology 
was  at  first  instituted,  and  of  this  Theodore  Beza 
was  the  first  head  or  Rector.  It  was  hoped  that 
other  schools  would  soon  be  added,  and  indeed  the 
anticipation  was  partially  realised;  but  the  efforts 
made  in  this  direction  were  spasmodic  and  short- 
lived. A  School  of  Medicine  in  a  small  town  or 
village  encounters  insuperable  difficulties  through 
the  lack  of  large  hospitals  and  of  clinical  instruction. 
To  encourage  the  study  of  medicine  at  Geneva,  it  is 
true,  a  law  was  passed  in  1564,  five  years  after  the 
establishment  of  the  University,  which  permitted 
the  dissection  of  the  bodies  of  criminals  executed 
for  their  offences  and  even  of  the  corpses  of  patients 
that  died  at  the  city  hospital/  But  the  provision 
was  inadequate  even  in  an  age  which  sent  men  to 
the  gallows  or  to  the  block  for  a  great  variety  of 
crimes,  and  in  which  the  laws  of  health  were  very 
imperfectly  known  or  observed.     Three  years  later 

^  Article  of  Professor  Cellerier,  as  below.     Bull.,  iv.,  i6, 


io6  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

(1567),  Beza,  In  asking  the  prayers  of  the  pastors  of 
Zurich,  drew  special  attention  to  the  new  medical 
department  of  the  University.'  The  study  of  Law 
fared  better  than  that  of  Medicine,  but  the  eminent 
teachers  that  were  called  to  lecture  were  very  in- 
adequately compensated  for  their  work  or  proved 
restless  for  other  reasons,  and  made  but  a  short 
tarry.  This  was  the  case  with  Hotman,  after  the 
Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day  (1572).  The 
School  of  Theology  and  its  teachers  fared  better. 
Yet  the  narrowness  of  the  provision  for  their  sup- 
port, which  has  been  estimated  as  the  equivalent  of 
one  thousand  francs,  or  two  hundred  dollars  of  our 
present  money,  was  not  without  its  discouraging 
effect.' 

The  solemn  opening  of  the  institution  took  place 
on  June  5,  1559,  in  the  spacious  cathedral  of  the 
city,  in  the  presence  of  the  two  syndics  and  of  the 
members  of  the  council  of  Geneva.  The  services 
were  impressive.  On  this  occasion  Beza,  who  had 
at  his  arrival  been  merely  constituted  public  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  literature,  but  had  subsequently  been 
chosen  (October  15,  1558)  to  preach  the  Gospel  and 
requested  to  continue  his  lectures  on  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  was  formally  proclaimed  Rector,  and  in- 
ducted into  ofifice.^ 

A  few   months  later,   on   November  9,    1559,   ^^ 


'  Inedited  letter  to  Bullinger  of  March  12,  1567.  Copy  in  Baum 
collection,  Library  of  French  Prot.  Hist.  Society  at  Paris. 

'^  Article  "  L' Academic  de  Geneve,"  by  Professor  J.  E.  Cellerier. 
in  the  Bull.,  iv.  (1855),  15 — a  valuable  monograph. 

2  See  his  address  in  Calvini  Op.,  xvii.,  542-547, 


1559]       Becomes  Calvin's  Coadjutor       107 

subscribed  his  name  to  the  laws  of  the  Academic, 
and  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Church  of  the 
city.  The  signature,  "  Theodorus  Beza  VezeUus 
scholae  rector,"  may  still  be  read  either  in  the  origi- 
nal Livre  du  Recteur,  or  in  the  faithful  transcript  of 
the  manuscript  which  has  been  printed  in  our  own 
days.'  The  name  is  followed  by  the  signatures  of 
Antoine  Cavallier,  of  Vire  in  Normandy,  professor 
of  Hebrew;  of  Jean  Tagaut,  of  Paris,  professor  of 
Arts,  or  Philosophy;  and  of  F^rangois  Beraud,  of 
Paris,  professor  of  Greek.  The  last  two  had  been 
colleagues  of  Beza  at  Lausanne  and  had  already  fol- 
lowed him  to  Geneva.  Others  were  yet  to  come. 
But  with  these  we  have  nothing  to  do  here.  As  to 
Beza  he  began  at  once  to  devote  himself  to  theo- 
logy. Calvin  had  for  years  been  teaching  this  same 
subject,  and  he  continued  to  do  so,  although  he 
was  never  formally  inscribed  as  a  professor.  How 
they  divided  the  instruction  between  them  is  not 
quite  certain ;  but  it  must  have  been  as  Calvin,  the 
author  of  the  entire  scheme,  had  arranged.  The 
instruction  of  both  was  essentially  exegetical.  Cal- 
vin and  Beza  at  first  confined  themselves  to  the 
simple  interpretation  of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  and 
successively  lectured  upon  them  in  alternate  weeks. 
At  a  later  time,  while  one  of  the  two  professors  con- 
tinued to  devote  himself  to  exegesis,  his  colleague 
treated  in  his  lectures  of  the  *'  common  places,"  or 
systematic  theology.'' 


'  Le  Livre  du  Recteui'.     Catalogue  des  Etudiants  de  I'Academie 
cle  Geneve  de  1559  a  1859.     Geneve,  i860. 
^  Professor  Cellerier,  op.  cit.,  15. 


io8  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Self-sacrifice  was  the  law  of  the  school.  The 
salaries,  always  inadequate  to  the  support  of  the 
incumbents  of  the  chairs,  were  neither  regularly 
nor  fully  paid.  In  times  of  public  calamity  we 
shall  see  Theodore  Beza  continuing  to  teach  with- 
out compensation,  and,  indeed,  taking  upon  his. 
shoulders  the  burden  of  the  entire  school,  until  the 
return  of  better  days.  And  in  all  periods  of  the 
history  of  the  Academie  of  Geneva,  from  Calvin's 
time  to  ours,  so  high  has  been  the  credit  of  this  seat 
of  learning  that  men  eminent  in  science  have,  we 
are  told,  accepted  as  a  great  honour  the  position  of 
teaching  professors.  Twice,  too,  within  a  space  of 
sixty  years,  professors  raised  to  the  rank  of  the  first 
magistrate  of  the  republic  have  continued,  despite 
this  high  dignity,  to  instruct  their  students.^ 

These  students,  writing  their  names  below  the 
signatures  of  the  professors  whom  I  have  named 
upon  the  Livre  dit  Recteur,  at  first,  like  their  in- 
structors, subscribed  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  of  the  Church  of  Geneva.  This 
practice  continued  from  1559  to  1576,  when,  under 
the  presidency  of  Beza,  and  no  doubt  with  his  full 
approval,  the  "  Venerable  Company  of  the  Pastors  " 
of  the  city  relieved  the  young  men  of  the  obligation : 

"inasmuch,"  say  the  minutes,  **  as  this  [subscription] 
deprives  Papists  and  Lutherans  of  the  opportunity  to 
come  and  receive  profit  from  this  church,  and  inasmuch 
as  it  does  not  seem  reasonable  to  press  after  this  fashion 
a  conscience  that  is  resolved  not  to  sign  what  it  does  not 
understand.  Moreover  the  Saxons  [Lutherans]  have 
1  Cellerier,  71.     The  reference  is  to  Professors  Lect  and  Godefroy. 


1559]      Becomes  Calvin's  Coadjutor      109 

taken  advantage  of  this  ordinance  to  compel  our  stu- 
dents that  go  to  them  to  sign  the  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg." ' 

Calvin  had  well  selected  his  colleague  and  succes- 
sor. As  unsparing  of  himself,  as  indefatigable  in 
labour,  as  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  faith  which 
he  had  embraced  as  was  his  master,  Beza  of  all  men 
living  was  best  qualified  to  carry  out  what  Calvin 
had  initiated.  Geneva  and  the  world  hardly  realised 
the  change  when  the  direction  of  affairs  passed,  after 
a  comparatively  brief  interval,  from  the  hands  of 
the  one  to  the  other.  For  Beza,  while  no  blind 
partisan  and  no  servile  imitator,  had  heartily  ac- 
cepted the  system  of  Calvin,  and  had  become  so 
thoroughly  imbued  with  his  spirit,  that  there  was 
no  perceptible  break  in  the  influence  which  emanated 
from  the  little  city  upon  the  Rhone.  Meanwhile, 
even  before  Calvin's  removal,  that  influence  seemed 
to  be  doubled  by  the  accession  of  Beza  as  Calvin's 
coadjutor,  and  Beza  did  for  France  what  Calvin 
himself  could  not  have  accomplished. 

^  Ibid..  22. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BEZA   AT    NERAC 

1560 

THE  crisis  was  fast  approaching  at  which  Theo- 
dore Beza  was  to  be  called  to  take  a  more 
active  part  in  the  affairs  of  Protestantism  than  was 
offered  by  embassies  in  behalf  of  persecuted  Vau- 
dois.  Before  long  the  French  court,  indeed  France 
entire,  was  to  witness  his  coming  as  an  advocate  of 
the  professors  of  the  doctrines  which  men  still  per- 
sisted in  contemptuously  stigmatising  as  "  new," 
and  was  to  hear  from  his  lips  the  first  great  plea 
uttered  in  defence  of  those  doctrines. 

Meanwhile  an  incident  occurred,  at  first  sight  of 
evanescent  importance,  but  destined  to  exercise  a 
lasting  influence  both  upon  Beza's  life  and  upon  the 
course  of  at  least  one  great  personage  in  France. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  brief  reign  of  Francis  II., 
after  the -conclusion  of  the  famous  Assembly  of  the 
Notables  at  Fontainebleau,  Antoine  of  Bourbon, 
titular  King  of  Navarre,  was  sojourning  in  the  city 
of  Nerac  in  the  province  of  Guyenne,  of  which  he 
was  governor  by  appointment  of  the  King  of  France. 
Here  he  deliberated  with  his  most  trusted  support- 

IIQ 


ANTOINE   DE   BOURBON,   KING  OF   NAVARRE. 


i56o]  Beza  at  Nerac  1 1 1 

ers  respecting  the  position  which  he  should  assume 
in  the  distracted  state  of  the  kingdom.  The 
Huguenots,  as  the  Protestants  of  the  realm  had, 
within  a  few  months,  begun  to  be  nicknamed,  were 
making  such  rapid  progress  that  the  Papal  Church 
trembled  for  the  consequences.  In  the  late  As- 
sembly, Admiral  Coligny  spoke  boldly  in  favour  of 
a  frank  concession  of  religious  liberty  and  advocated 
a  complete  cessation  of  persecution.  Others  sup- 
ported his  views  and  did  not  quail  in  face  of  the 
defiant  attitude  and  threatening  words  of  the  Duke 
of  Guise  and  his  partisans.  Antoine  had  held  aloof 
and  had  not  been  present  at  the  discussions. 
Though  cowardly  and  unstable,  he  had  given  and 
still  gave  men  reason  to  believe  that  he  sympathised 
with  the  Reformed  and  would  uphold  their  cause. 
When,  therefore,  Theodore  Beza  received  at  Geneva 
a  very  pressing  invitation  from  the  King  and  the 
Queen  of  Navarre  to  visit  N^rac  and  give  them  the 
benefit  of  his  counsel,  it  seemed  impossible  to  de- 
cline. The  "  Venerable  Company  of  the  Pastors  of 
Geneva  "  cheerfully  approved  his  going,  while  pru- 
dently recording  upon  their  minutes  a  simple  state- 
ment that,  "  on  the  20th  of  July,  our  brother, 
]\Ionsieur  de  B&ze,  was  sent  to  Guyenne  to  the  King 
and  Queen  of  Navarre,  for  the  purpose  of  instructing 
them  in  the  Word  of  God."  '  Nor  did  Beza,  in  his 
efforts  to  fulfil  the  part  of  his  mission  which  in  their 
caution  the  ministers  had  refrained  from  mention- 
ing, neglect  the  rare  opportunity  afforded  him  to 
work  for  the  more  purely  religious  end  which  they 
'  Baum,  ii.,  no. 


112  Theodore  Beza  [1510- 

had  put  prominently  forward.  Consternation  fell 
upon  the  opponents  of  Protestantism  when  they 
learned  that  Beza  had  from  the  pulpit  preached 
publicly  before  his  royal  auditors  the  very  doctrines 
for  the  profession  of  which  men  and  women  had  for 
so  many  weary  years  been  subjected  to  all  forms  of 
punishment,  even  to  burning  to  death. 

But  Beza's  activity  was  not  confined  to  the  purely 
religious  sphere.  For  the  first  time  he  had  the  op- 
portunity to  display  the  abilities  of  a  clear-sighted 
man  of  affairs.  He  was  the  best  adviser  of  Antoine 
of  Bourbon.  His  voice  rose  in  protest  against  the 
insidious  projects  of  the  court.  When,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  the  Guises,  the  King  of  Navarre  was 
urged  to  comply  with  the  command  given  in  the 
name  of  Francis  II.  to  come  northward  and  to  bring 
with  him  his  younger  brother  Louis  of  Bourbon, 
Prince  of  Conde,  in  order  that  the  latter  might  have 
an  opportunity  to  clear  himself  of  the  grave  accusa- 
tions of  which  he  was_  the  object,  no  one  opposed 
the  foolhardy  venture  more  strenuously  than  Beza. 
His  words  were  little  heeded.  Antoine,  as  credul- 
ous as  he  was  inconstant,  preferred  to  listen  to  the 
suggestions  of  Cardinal  Bourbon,  who  came  on  the 
unfraternal  errand  of  luring  his  two  brothers  to  their 
destruction.  Before  setting  out,  indeed,  the  same 
king  who,  a  few  weeks  since,  had  not  dissembled 
his  aversion  to  the  Mass  and  avowed  his  preference 
for  the  Communion  as  celebrated  by  the  Protestants 
under  both  forms,  was  seen  approving  by  his  pre- 
sence the  Roman  ceremonial  of  the  Mass,  and  com- 
pelling the  attendance  of  his  little  son,  the  future 


i56o]  Beza  at  Nerac  113 

Henry  IV.  Deaf  to  the  suggestion  of  his  friends 
tliat,  if  go  he  must,  he  should  proceed  to  court 
under  the  protection  of  a  powerful  escort,  he  per- 
sisted in  declining  the  repeated  offers  made  to  him 
successively,  at  various  points  in  his  journey,  of  the 
thousands  of  men  that  could  be  brought  to  him 
from  Poitou  and  Gascony,  from  Provenge  and  Lan- 
guedoc,  in  the  south,  and  from  Normandy  in  the 
north.  He  fancied  himself  safe  in  trusting  the  per- 
son of  Conde  and  his  own  person  to  the  most  per- 
fidious of  personal  enemies.  Cond^,  strange  to  say, 
for  the  time  partook  of  his  delusion.  Neither 
awoke  to  the  danger  until  it  was  too  late.  That  in 
the  end  they  escaped  the  fate  to  which  one,  if  not 
both,  of  them  seemed  likely  to  be  consigned,  was 
due  to  no  foresight  of  theirs,  but  to  a  circumstance 
beyond  the  reach  of  human  prescience — the  speedy 
and  sudden  death  of  the  boy-king,  Francis  H.' 

The  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  had  endeavoured  to 
persuade  Antoine  to  bring  to  court  in  his  train  the 
Genevese  theologian,  as  well,  apparently,  as  the 
famous  jurisconsult  Francois  Hotman,  and  others 
of  his  Protestant  advisers.  However,  neither  Beza 
nor  Hotman  had  any  taste  for  the  adventure.  Beza 
accompanied  the  Bourbon  princes  only  a  part  of  the 
way,  possibly  as  far  as  to  Limoges,  and  then  struck 
out,  through  a  country  far  from  safe,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Geneva.  Hotman  took  some  other  way. 
Both  had  heavy  hearts,  because  both  seemed  to 
have  laboured  in  vain.^     Before  Beza  there  stretched 


'  See  Rise  of  the  Htignenots,  i.,  435-444. 

^  Hotman  to  Peter  Martyr,  Nov.  20,  1560,  in  IJaum,  ii.,  I2] 


114  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

a  journey  that  would  have  occupied  many  days  under 
the  most  auspicious  circumstances.  He  must  travel 
unobserved,  and  therefore  in  disguise,  and  by  night.' 
Under  the  kind  protection  of  Heaven,  he  escaped 
every  danger,  and  safely  reached  Geneva,  where  his 
friends,  ignorant  of  his  fortunes,  had  well-nigh  de- 
spaired of  seeing  him  again. 

His  short  absence  of  a  little  over  three  months 
was  not  so  barren  of  permanent  advantage  as  at  the 
tiine  he,  and  perhaps  his  friends  also,  imagined. 

Until  now  Jeanne  d'Albret,  Queen  of  Navarre, 
had  been  timid.  While  her  husband  seemed  to 
burn  with  zeal  for  the  Reformation,  she  was  reserved 
and  cold.  Sagacious  and  discerning,  she  weighed 
the  dangers  that  invested  an  espousal  of  Protestant- 
ism. The  principality  of  Beam  and  the  rest  of  the 
kingdom  of  Navarre  on  the  northern  slope  of  the 
Pyrenees  were  after  all  but  a  contracted  territory 
in  a  peculiarly  exposed  situation.  Her  ancestors 
had  not  been  able  to  protect  the  greater  part  of 
their  possessions  from  Spanish  rapacity.  How 
should  she,  a  woman,  rescue  the  small  remainder, 
were  she  to  incur  the  enmity  of  the  Papal  See  by  a 
change  of  faith  ?  What  more  effective  way  than 
this  to  invite  invasion  from  without  and  insurrection 
from  within  ?  Yet  just  in  the  proportion  that  An- 
toine's  fervour  cooled,  did  her  own  ardour  rise  to  a 
glowing  heat.  Immediately  after  Beza's  visit  to 
Nerac,  and,  it  would  seem,  greatly  as  a  consequence 
of  his  exposition  of  the  Word  of  God,  she  came  to  a 


De  Thou,  ii.,  827. 


JEANNE    D'ALBRET,    QUEEN    OF    NAVARRE. 


i56o]  Beza  at  Nerac  115 

decision  from  which  during  all  the  rest  of  her  life 
she  never  swerved.  The  story  is  best  told  in  the 
simple  narrative  of  the  history  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  France  composed,  if  not  by  Beza,  at 
least  under  his  supervision  : 

"  The  Queen  of  Navarre,  after  the  departure  of  the 
king  her  husband,  withdrew  to  Beam,  where  she  re- 
ceived within  a  few  days  tidings  of  the  arrest  of  the 
Prince  [of  Conde]  at  Orleans,  and  of  the  conspiracy 
against  her  husband,  as  well  as  of  certain  conferences 
held  in  Spain  having  in  view  the  surprise  of  her  princi- 
pality of  Beam  and  the  remnant  of  Navarre.  Seeing 
then  that  the  trust  which  she  had  reposed  in  man  was 
lost,  and  that  all  human  help  failed  her,  and  being 
touched  to  the  quick  by  the  love  of  God,  she  had  re- 
course to  Him  in  all  humility,  with  cries  and  tears,  as 
her  sole  refuge,  and  solemnly  declared  her  purpose  to 
keep  His  commandments.  Thus  was  it  that,  in  the  time 
of  her  greatest  tribulation,  she  made  public  profession 
of  the  pure  doctrine,  being  strengthened  in  her  intention 
by  Francois  le  Guay,  otherwise  known  as  Bois  Normand, 
and  N.  Henri,  faithful  ministers  of  God's  Word.  And 
committing  the  issue  altogether  to  the  divine  mercy,  she 
put  on  a  virile  and  magnanimous  courage,  and  started  to 
visit  and  provision  for  a  long  siege  her  stronghold  of 
Navarrenx  in  Beam,  which,  it  was  rumoured,  the  Span- 
iards intended  to  surprise.  There  she  heard  the  news 
of  the  illness  of  the  king  [Francis  II.]  and,  soon  after, 
of  his  death.  At  Christmas  following  the  receipt  of  this 
intelligence,  she  again  made  a  full  and  clear  confession 
of  her  faith  and  partook  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Very 
soon  thereafter  she  sent  to  the  king  [Charles  IX.]  her 
aforesaid  Confession  of  Faith  composed  by  herself,  and 


ii6'  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

written  and  signed  with  her  own  hand;  for  she  was  of  a 
singularly  fine  mind."  ^ 

Certainly  it  was  worth  all  the  trouble  which  Beza 
took  and  all  the  dangers  he  encountered  by  the  way 
to  know  that  he  had  contributed  to  bring  the  mother 
of  Henry  IV.  to  so  resolute  a  stand.  Nor  is  it 
strange,  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances,  that  Beza, 
when  referring  to  this  visit,  in  the  dedication  to 
Henry  IV.  of  a  treatise  published  in  1591,  should 
have  remarked:  **  Moreover,  Sire,  I  am  myself  one 
of  those  that  had  the  grace  from  the  Almighty  to 
be  called  and  received  and  attentively  heard,  pro- 
claiming the  word  of  my  Master,  in  your  royal 
house  of  Nerac,  thirty-one  years  ago."  ' 

As  for  Theodore  Beza,  he  had  shown  that  he  was 
not  only  a  devoted  Protestant,  but  an  able  states- 
man as  well.  It  was  through  no  fault  of  his  that 
Antoine  did  not  present  himself  at  the  French  court 
with  a  body  of  men  sufficient  to  enforce  the  demand 
for  a  righteous  performance  of  the  promises  made 
at  Fontainebleau  by  a  royal  council  which,  while 
outwardly  approving,  had  no  honest  intention  to 
execute  its  engagements.^ 

From  this  time  forth  the  eyes  of  the  Protestants 
of  France  were  fixed  upon  Theodore  Beza.  When 
the  critical  moment  arrived  that  demanded  a  man 
both  ardent  in  his  religious  convictions  and  eminent 
in  his  theological  attainments,  a  man  firm  and  un- 

■  IJistoire  Ecclhiastique  des  £glises  R^f armies^   ed.  Baum  and 
Cunitz  (Paris,  1883),  i.,  370. 
'^  Extract  in  Baum,  ii.,  125. 
'  See  Rise  of  the  Huguenots^  i.,  434. 


1560J  Beza  at  Nerac  117 

flinching  in  the  advocacy  of  the  Protestant  faith,  a 
man  in  the  constitution  of  whose  character  courage 
and  prudence  were  singularly  well  balanced,  it  was 
no  fortuitous  thing  that  Theodore  Beza  was  sum- 
moned to  assume  an  important  part  with  high  ex- 
pectations regarding  his  success,  which,  as  the  sequel 
proved,  were  not  to  be  disappointed. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

RECALL     TO     FRANCE 
1561 

THE  contingency  to  which  reference  was  made  at 
the  close  of  the  last  chapter  arose  in  the  year 
following  the  incidents  therein  described.  It  is  im- 
portant therefore  to  form  some  conception  of  the 
France  to  which  the  Reformer  was  now  officially 
invited  to  return  after  an  expatriation  of  thirteen 
years,  interrupted  only  by  the  short  visit  to  Nerac. 
For  his  native  land  had  undergone  a  series  of  won- 
derful changes,  the  most  wonderful  of  them  all 
within  the  brief  compass  of  the  last  few  months 
preceding  his  return. 

When  Beza  withdrew  secretly  from  Paris  in  1548, 
he  forsook  a  country  governed  with  a  strong  hand, 
if  not  in  fact  by  a  monarch  of  mature  years,  at  least, 
in  his  name  and  under  his  legitimate  authority,  by 
the  favourites  to  whom  he  chose  to  delegate  the  en- 
tire management  of  affairs.  Francis  I.  had  then 
been  in  his  grave  but  a  year.  The  reign  of  the 
monarch  whose  chief  claim  to  recognition,  whose 
sole  pretence  to  be  called  "  great,"  was  that,  as 
patron  of  letters  and   scholars,  he  aspired  to  be  the 

118 


i56o]  Recall  to  France  119 

representative  of  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance,  had 
i^one  out  ingloriously  in  the  glare  of  the  burning 
villages  of  the  Vaudois  of  Cabri^res  and  Merindol, 
and  amid  the  lurid  flames  of  the  holocaust  of  the 

Fourteen  "  roasted  alive  on  the  squares  of  Meaux. 
Proscription  of  the  "  Lutheran  heresy  "  and  of  all 
suspected  of  being  tainted  with  it,  was  the  watch- 
word of  the  last  years  of  a  prince  who  was  at  one 
time  believed  to  favour  what  were  still  styled  "  the 
new  doctrines,"  despite  the  stout  assertions  of  their 
advocates  that  they  were  but  "  the  old  doctrines  " 
of  the  Church  restated. 

If  the  Reformed  doctrines  made  any  progress 
during  the  twelve  years  of  Henry  II.,  they  made  it 
in  defiance  of  the  personal  hatred  of  the  king  and 
of  a  systematic  legislation  of  the  most  severe  and 
sanguinary  character.  Yet  the  advance  was  both 
rapid  and  substantial.  Of  this  the  most  satisfactory 
proof  is  found  in  the  excesses  of  the  inquisitorial 
tribunal  erected  by  the  judges  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris.  That  tribunal,  from  the  facility  and  regular- 
ity with  which  it  sent  its  victims  to  the  flames,  came 
to  be  familiarly  designated  as  the  CJiambre  Ar- 
dente.  The  recent  fortunate  discovery  and  publi- 
cation of  the  original  records  of  its  proceedings ' 
gives,  in  fact,  the  impression  that  one  half  of  the 
atrocities  of  the  famous  court  had  not  been  told 
and  that  popular  rumour  did  injustice  to  the  activity 
rather  than  to  the  humanity  of  its  members. 

'  By  Mr.  N.  Weiss,  in  his  Chambre  Ardente  :  Etude  sur  la  Liber te 
de  Conscience  en  France  sous  Francois  F''  et  Henry  II.,  1^40-ij^o 
(Paris,  1889).  Mr.  Weiss  discovered  about  five  hundred  sentences 
given  by  the  Parliament  of  Paris  from  May,  1547,  to  March,  i$$o. 


I20  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

That  Protestantism  actually  grew,  instead  of  being 
destroyed  root  and  branch,  was  patent  evidence  that 
it  possessed  extraordinary  vitality.  Year  by  year 
reports  became  more  frequent  of  whole  provinces 
"  infected  "  by  the  "  poison  "  of  heresy.  The  cap- 
ital itself  contained  its  body  of  believers  meeting 
regularly,  but  with  the  utmost  secrecy.  They  had 
indeed  been  organised  as  a  church,  with  pastors  and 
other  ofiiicers.  Of  this  the  government  was  pos- 
sibly as  ignorant  as  it  was  ignorant  of  the  fact  that, 
a  few  months  before  Henry's  death,  a  representative 
assembly  met  within  the  walls  of  Paris,  composed 
of  delegates  from  different  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
and  adopted  a  Confession  of  Faith  and  settled  the 
Directory  for  Worship  and  the  Form  of  Government 
of  the  Churches  for  the  time  to  come.  But  if  Henry 
was  not  kept  fully  informed  of  these  things  by  his 
spies,  he  knew,  at  any  rate,  that  the  judges  of  his 
own  high  Court  of  Parliament  were  by  no  means 
sound  in  the  faith  as  judged  by  the  tests  of  ortho- 
doxy. For  did  he  not,  within  a  month  of  his  death, 
hear  them  avow  heterodox  sentiments  in  a  judicial 
conference,  and  did  he  not  openly  declare  that  he 
would  see  the  guilty  burned  before  his  eyes  ? 

The  fatal  thrust  of  the  misdirected  lance  of  Count 
Montgomery,  in  the  fatal  tourney  in  honour  of  the 
nuptials  of  Philip  H.  of  Spain  and  Elizabeth  of 
France,  rendered  futile  this  threat,  by  depriving 
Henry  both  of  eyesight  and  of  life.  At  his  death 
French  Protestantism  entered  upon  a  new  and  more 
surprising  course  of  growth  and  development.  The 
princes  and  nobles  that  came  into  power  were,  indeed, 


1560] 


Recall  to  France  121 


no  less  dctennincd  to  suppress  the  Reformation  than 
Henry  had  been.  But  what  had  appeared  possible 
for  a  monarch  in  the  flower  of  his  age,  was  soon 
seen  to  be  utterly  hopeless  for  a  mere  striplin*^,  con- 
fessedly not  ruling  by  himself,  who  deliberately 
handed  over  the  reins  of  authority  to  his  wife's 
uncles,  the  Duke  and  Cardinal  of  Guise.  For  now 
men  who  might  have  continued  for  an  indefinite 
time  to  submit  to  the  cruel  commands  of  a  lawful 
king,  believed  it  no  sin  to  oppose  the  mandates  of 
subjects  who  had  illegally  possessed  themselves  of 
the  machinery  of  government.  The  outbreak  known 
as ' '  The  Tumult  of  Amboise  "  (i  560)  was  no  strange 
phenomenon.  It  would  rather  have  been  strange 
had  no  outbreak  occurred.  Nor  is  it  surprising 
that,  although  the  ill-concerted  enterprise  was 
speedily  put  down,  the  popular  ferment  was  not 
quieted  but  rather  increased.  Now  the  religious  in- 
stinct of  the  masses  of  the  people  began  more 
openly  to  demand  satisfaction.  Unable  to  obtain 
churches  for  their  worship,  the  crowds  resorted  to 
the  fields,  especially  in  the  provinces  most  remote 
from  the  capital.  The  services  were  conducted  by 
ministers,  many  of  them  trained  in  the  city  of  Cal- 
vin, and  were  celebrated,  as  men  said,  "  after  the 
manner  of  Geneva,"  that  is,  with  public  prayers 
such  as  Calvin  had  drawn  up  in  his  liturgy,  with  the 
preaching  of  God's  Word,  and  with  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper.  Mandates  of  bishops,  for  the  most  part 
non-resident,  and  proclamations  of  royal  governors 
and  lieutenant-governors  might  lead  to  the  capture 


122  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

and  execution  of  here  and  there  a  minister  or  of 
some  courageous  layman.  But  these  incidents  had 
Httle  or  no  permanent  effect.  They  did  not  arrest 
the  advance  of  a  religion  which  confessedly  bore 
good  fruit  by  promoting  morality  and  good  order. 
At  this  juncture  the  government  resolved  to  try  the 
experiment  of  convening  an  assembly  of  the  Nota- 
bles of  the  realm,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the 
best  advice  for  allaying  the  prevalent  spirit  of  dis- 
content. 

But  the  Assembly  of  Fontainebleau  (August, 
1560),  so  far  from  devising  the  means  of  suppress- 
ing the  Reformation,  gave  to  the  advocates  of  the 
Reformation  their  first  opportunity  to  demand 
liberty  of  worship.  Here  it  was  that  Admiral  Co- 
ligny  boldly  brought  forward  two  petitions,  the  one 
addressed  to  the  monarch,  the  other  to  his  mother. 
Queen  Catharine  de'  Medici,  and  both  documents 
presented  in  the  name  of  "  the  faithful  "  of  all  parts 
of  France.  The  documents  were  unsigned,  but  the 
admiral  asserted  that  he  could  secure,  if  necessary, 
fifty  thousand  signatures  in  the  single  province  of 
Normandy.  They  demanded  houses  for  worship 
and  the  clear  recognition  of  the  right  to  assemble  in 
these  houses  for  the  service  of  God.  Here  too  it  was 
that,  a  day  or  two  later,  the  same  nobleman  took 
the  bold  step  of  openly  espousing  the  cause  of  the 
Protestant  Reformers.  At  a  moment  when,  under 
the  law,  such  sentiments  as  he  uttered  rendered 
him  liable  to  the  capital  charge  of  heresy,  he 
solemnly  declared  his  belief  that,  should  the  houses 
of  worship  be  accorded  and  should  the  royal  judges 


IIIJii'^V  A"  iC  fi'r.  j.^iO  .flrrl ul\iri^^  L-  -2  ^xl..Uit  ii>- S^>C\\n 


/»*.»/■;.<  .:AiV  i»./i.-«iv.-.7/-</^  ll.uny.:'  .fu.it  M-  It:. 

L-.r.ii. 


-.-■    :j 


COLIQNY. 

FROM    AN    OLD    ENGRAVING    IN    THE    PRINT-ROOM,     BRITISH    MUSEUM. 


i56o]  Recall  to  France  123 

be  instructed  to  maintain  his  Majesty's  authority 
and  the  public  peace,  quiet  and  universal  content- 
ment would  at  once  return.  It  was  a  notable  cir- 
cumstance that  the  occasion  upon  which  Admiral 
Coligny  pledged  life  and  property  to  the  belief  that 
the  people  in  nowise  wished  the  crown  ill,  the  oc- 
casion upon  which  he  warned  the  king's  advisers 
that  it  is  a  perilous  thing  to  nurture  in  the  king  a 
suspicion  of  the  loyalty  of  his  subjects,  was  a  Saint 
Bartholomew's  Day,  just  twelve  years  before  that 
inauspicious  Sunday  in  August  on  which  the  grey- 
haired  Huguenot  hero  laid  down  his  life,  a  sacrifice 
attesting  the  sincerity  of  his  religious  convictions. 

The  next  twelvemonth,  the  last  that  elapsed  be- 
fore Beza's  recall  to  France,  was  probably  more 
eventful  than  any  other  period  of  equal  duration  in 
the  sixteenth  century.  This  was  certainly  the  fact 
so  far  as  the  Protestants  were  concerned.  Francis 
11.  died  after  one  of  the  briefest  reigns  in  French 
history.  The  means  devised  by  the  enemies  of  the 
Protestants  for  their  destruction,  including  the  con- 
vocation of  the  States-General  that  w^ere  to  seal  the 
overthrow  of  their  protectors,  seemed  to  have  been 
ordained  by  Providence  for  its  own  ulterior  and 
wiser  ends.  With  the  death  of  their  nephew  the 
Guises  lost  their  undisputed  ascendancy,  and  the 
King  of  Navarre  gained  a  fresh  opportunity  to  vin- 
dicate his  right,  as  first  prince  of  the  blood,  to  the 
regency  of  the  kingdom.  How  he  was  induced  to 
throw  away  this  advantage  and  other  advantages 
that  might  have  materially  affected  the  progress  of 
the  Protestant  doctrines,  and  what  were  the  fruits 


124  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

of  his  recreancy,  I  do  not  purpose  to  state  in  detail 
in  this  place/ 

As  it  was,  the  day  of  religious  emancipation  ap- 
peared to  have  dawned.  Many  incidents  of  the 
early  part  of  the  year  1561  might  be  cited  in  evi- 
dence. One  distinguished  Roman  Catholic  prelate 
made  no  little  stir  by  openly  championing  the  Pro- 
testant movement.  Cardinal  Odet  de  Chastillon  was 
the  elder  brother  of  Admiral  Coligny.  He  had  in 
his  youth  entered  the  Church,  having  no  leaning  to 
the  profession  of  arms.  He  had  recently  been 
making  less  and  less  of  a  secret  of  his  full  accept- 
ance of  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation.  He  was 
count  and  bishop  of  the  old  city  of  Beauvais,  and, 
as  such,  one  of  the  twelve  ancient  peers  of  the  king- 
dom. Even  thus,  however,  he  could  scarcely  de- 
fend himself  against  the  fury  of  the  rabble,  when  it 
was  noised  abroad  that,  not  content  with  fostering 
the  growth  of  the  **  new  doctrines  "  in  his  diocese, 
he  had  at  Easter  absented  himself  from  his  cathe- 
dral and  celebrated  the  great  Christian  feast  in  the 
chapel  of  his  episcopal  palace.  There  the  Gospel 
had  been  preached  and  the  Holy  Communion  ad- 
ministered **  after  the  manner  of  Geneva,  though 
something  discrepant," — to  use  Sir  Nicholas  Throk- 
morton's  words, — each  participant  receiving  both 
elements  at  the  hands  of  the  officiating  clergyman. 
Naturally  the  opposition  originated  with  the  clergy. 

**  Wherewith,"  pursues  the  English  ambassador,  "  the 
canons  and  divers  of  the  popular  people,  not  content, 


See  Kise  of  the  Huguenots,  i,,  451,  fi)ll.,  for  a  full  discussion. 


ODET,  CARDINAL  OF  CHASTILLON. 


i56i]  Recall  to  France  125 

murmured  and  assembled  in  great  numbers  to  have 
wrought  their  wicked  wills  upon  the  Cardinal,  who  shut 
himself  and  his,  with  divers  of  the  communicants  of  the 
town,  within  his  house;  yet  not  so  speedily  but  that  some 
were  hurt  and  killed,  and  one  of  the  townsmen  brought 
violently  before  the  Cardinal's  gate,  and  there  burned  out 
of  hand  without  further  proceeding  of  justice  in  the 
matter."  * 

This  was  in  April.  Before  the  close  of  the  same 
month  about  one  hundred  gentlemen  and  others 
gathered  in  a  house  of  the  suburbs  of  Paris,  near 
the  Pre  aux  Clcrcs,  and  there  held  Protestant  serv- 
ices. Being  discovered,  an  assault  was  made  upon 
the  house  by  the  populace,  but  the  besieged  gentle- 
men repelled  it  with  harquebuses  and  such  other 
weapons  as  they  carried.  Seven  or  eight  of  the 
assailants  were  killed  before  the  mob  was  tardily 
dispersed  by  the  officers  of  justice.  A  few  months 
earlier,  the  Protestants  would  certainly  have  been 
arrested  and  tried,  and  the  sequel  would  have  been 
a  holocaust  of  victims  offered  up  on  the  altar  of  re- 
ligious intolerance.  Instead  of  this,  the  King  of 
Navarre,  opportunely  coming  to  the  capital  in  com- 
pany with  Prince  La  Roche  sur  Yon,  the  Duke  of 
Longueville,  and  many  other  noblemen,  to  repress 
disorders,  gave  some  sound  advice  to  the  authors 
and  abettors  of  all  the  mischief  to  which  the 
Parisians  were  prone.  He  called  before  him  in  the 
hall  of  the  Louvre,  says  Throkmorton, 


*  Throkmorton  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  Paris,  April  20,  1561.      Calen- 
dar of  State  Papers  (Stevenson  ed.),  82-8S. 


126  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

"  all  the  head  curates  and  churchwardens  of  all  the 
parishes  of  the  town  and  two  of  every  religious  house, 
with  the  regents  [professors]  of  the  colleges,  exhorting 
them  in  the  king's  name  to  quietness,  and  charging 
others  for  seditious  preaching  and  rather  moving  the 
people  to  tumults  and  sedition  than  edifying  them." 

He  assured  them  that 

"  when  the  same  should  happen  hereafter,  the  king 
would  make  them  feel  his  indignation,  and  advised  them 
not  to  molest  any  man  living  without  open  scandal,  nor 
to  seek  men  in  their  houses,  as  had  been  done  at  the 
instigation  of  some  there  present,  whom  he  knew  and 
[who]  had  changed  their  own  weed  under  colour  of 
scholars."  ^ 

Thus  wrote  the  envoy  to  his  royal  mistress  in 
May.  A  few  days  passed  and  her  Majesty  was  in- 
formed of  a  still  more  significant  event.  The  solemn 
anointing  and  coronation  of  young  King  Charles 
IX.  was  duly  celebrated  in  the  cathedral  of  Rheims 
according  to  immemorial  usage,  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  as  archbishop  of  the  city,  officiating  and 
saying  mass,  and  the  twelve  peers  of  the  kingdom 
assisting.  But  no  inconsiderable  number  of  the 
nobles,  and  these  among  the  most  powerful,  ab- 
sented themselves,  and  their  absence  was  known  to 
be  for  no  other  reason  than  their  unwillingness  to 
countenance  a  worship  which  they  had  come  to  re- 
pudiate as  idolatrous.  Of  the  number  were  the 
Prince  of   Conde,   Admiral   Coligny,    the   Duke   of 


'  Throkmortuii  to  C^ueeii  Elizabeth,  May  4,  1561.     Ibid.,  96. 


i56i]  Recall  to  France  127 

Longueville,  Marshal  Montmorency,  and  his  brother 
Damville.  Moreover  men  noticed  that  on  the  part 
of  most  of  those  noblemen  who  attended  there  was 
little  or  no  reverence  paid  at  the  solemn  moment  of 
the  elevation  of  the  host.  "  So  far  forth,  thanks 
be  to  God,  is  true  religion  in  this  country!"  ex- 
claimed the  Earl  of  Hertford,  an  eye-witness.' 

At  this  time,  it  may  be  observed,  a  little  frank 
espousal  of  the  Protestant  cause  on  the  part  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  a  few  unmistakable  words  declar- 
ing her  firm  purpose  never  to  return  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  might  possibly  have  decided  the 
French  noblemen  that  still  wavered  between  the  two 
religions.  As  it  was,  the  Pope,  the  Emperor,  and 
the  King  of  Spain  received  confident  assurances  from 
England  itself  that  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in 
making  the  queen  change  her  religion,  and  Eliza- 
beth's envoy  informed  her  that  when  a  Protestant 
spoke  on  the  subject  to  Cardinal  Lorraine  and  Mary 
of  Scots,  these  "  made  their  advantage  of  the  cross 
and  candles  in  your  [Queen  Elizabeth's]  chapel, 
saying  you  were  not  yet  fully  resolved  of  what 
religion  you  should  be."  ^ 

Yet,  with  or  without  the  aid  of  Elizabeth's  ex- 
ample, the  Protestants  were  becoming  more  and 
more  bold.  Old  proscriptive  laws  could  no  longer 
be  executed.  Protestants  would  assemble  for  wor- 
ship. When,  a  little  later,  the  Queen  of  Navarre 
journeyed  by  short  stages  to  court,  she  had  preach- 
ing services  in  her  presence  wherever  she  stopped. 

'  Letter  to  Cecil,  Paris,  May  20,  1561.     Ibid.,  116. 

'  Throkmorton  to  the  queen,  April  29,  1561.      Ibid.,  86. 


128  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Then  the  attendance  was  marvellous.  Fifteen  thou- 
sand persons  joined  with  her  at  Orleans  in  partaking 
of  the  Ho]}^  Communion.  The  city  had  declared 
itself  of  the  new  sect,  according  to  the  Venetian 
Suriano.' 

Earnest  Roman  Catholics  were  startled  and  dis- 
couraged, not  least  of  all  the  papal  nuncio,  the 
Bishop  of  Viterbo.  So  sure  was  he  that  everything 
was  going  to  rack  and  ruin,  that  he  sought  and  ob- 
tained his  recall.^  His  successor,  Cardinal  Santa 
Cruce,  was  a  man  who  never  lost  heart  and  who 
came  determined  to  win  in  spite  of  all  difficulties. 
Yet  it  may  be  noted  that,  before  he  had  been  many 
months  in  the  country,  the  correspondence  of  even 
this  sanguine  personage  took  on  almost  precisely  the 
same  mournful  tone  as  that  for  which  he  had  criti- 
cised his  predecessor,  and  he  too  was  begging  to  be 
permitted  to  return  to  Rome,  in  order  that  he  might 
not  witness  with  his  own  eyes  the  funeral  obsequies 
of  an  unfortunate  kingdom.^ 

The  one  thing  that  Pope  and  nuncio,  priests  and 
cardinals,  united  in  dreading  as  the  direst  of  cata- 
strophes was  the  very  thing  which  Huguenots  and 
patriots  with  equal  unanimity  desired  as  the  con- 
summation of  all  their  hopes — that  liberty  of  con- 
science and  of  religious  worship  might  at  length  be 
conceded.      But,   at  the   bare   sueeestion   that   the 


^  Despatch  of  Michele  Suriano,  Paris,  August  24,  1561.  Despatches, 
edited  by  Sir  Henry  Layard  {^Publications  of  Huguenot  Society  of 
London,  vol.  vi.),  p.  xliv. 

^  Shers  to  Cecil,  Treviso,  May  17,  1561.  Calendar  of  State  Papers 
(Stevenson  ed.),  114,  115. 

^  Letter  of  January  7,  1562.     Aymon,  Tous  les  Synodes,  i.,  21,  22. 


i56r]  Recall  to  France  129 

heretics  "  should  be  publicly  heard  in  defence  of 
their  erroneous  views,  bigots  were  beside  themselves 
with  anger.  The  only  way  to  deal  with  such  ac- 
cursed men  was  to  condemn  them  offhand  and  with- 
out a  hearing,  lest  their  insinuating  words  should 
infect  others  with  the  poison  of  heresy.  Laymen 
added  their  influence  to  that  of  clergymen  in  dis- 
suading the  government  from  making  a  dangerous 
experiment.  On  the  eve  of  the  colloquy  respecting 
which  we  are  next  to  speak,  Catharine  de'  Medici, 
who  had,  or  feigned  that  she  had,  the  highest  re- 
spect for  the  Doge  of  Venice,  while  she  was  sus- 
picious of  everybody  else,  asked  advice  of  Suriano, 
the  Doge's  ambassador.  The  latter  gave  the  custom- 
ary recommendation — to  temporise,  to  keep  things 
as  quiet  as  possible,  to  resort  now  and  then,  as  occa- 
sion demanded,  to  persuasion  or  admonition,  to  use 
a  little  severity,  to  gain  over  by  gifts  and  by  pro- 
mises. But  when  the  queen  -  mother  somewhat 
shamefacedly  admitted  that  it  had  been  agreed  that 
Theodore  Beza  should  have  a  hearing  in  the  con- 
vocation of  the  bishops,  and  that  she  had  hopes  of 
gaining  him  over  in  one  or  another  of  the  ways 
which  the  ambassador  had  just  suggested,  Suriano 
demurred : 

"  In  order  that  she  might  never  be  able  to  assert  that 
this  course  had  ever  been  counselled  or  approved  by  me, 
I  told  her  that  the  Canons  had  expressly  forbidden  dis- 
puting or  treating  with  heretics,  and  that  the  bishops 
would  fall  under  censure.  Such  a  proceeding  would  be 
the  source  of  scandal  and  peril.  If  it  is  desired  to  gain 
Beza  in  this  way,  it  were  better  done  privately  in  a  room." 


I30  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Catharine  replying  that  the  bishops  were  themselves 
satisfied  with  the  contemplated  arrangement,  the 
ambassador  stood  his  ground,  and  could  only  reiter- 
ate his  strong  belief  that  privacy  was  better  than 
publicity,  and  that  in  any  case  only  a  few  persons 
should  be  permitted  to  be  present  at  the  colloquy.' 

Of  assurances  that  no  important  changes  would 
be  made,  indeed,  no  changes  at  all  affecting  the  re- 
ligion professed  by  the  kings  of  France,  predecessors 
of  the  present  occupant  of  the  throne, — of  assurances 
that  the  obedience  of  France  to  the  Pope  would  be 
maintained  to  the  utmost  and  that  no  attempt  would 
be  made  to  alienate  the  property  of  the  Church — 
of  such  assurances  Catharine  de'  Medici  was  prodi- 
gal enough.  But  whether  any  reliance  could  be 
placed  on  her  word  was  doubtful.  The  trouble  with 
her  and  with  her  council  was  that  they  were  as  ready 
to  unsay  as  to  say,  and  that  they  did  not  hesitate, 
when  convenient,  to  deny  that  they  had  ever  uttered 
any  of  their  previous  assertions." 

The  queen-mother  was,  in  the  estimation  of  all 
well-informed  men,  timid  and  irresolute.  Whether 
she  would  favour  or  oppose  the  progress  of  the  Re- 
formed religion,  was  a  question  which  it  was  at  the 
time  impossible  to  answer  with  certainty,  simply 
because  the  decision  ultimately  reached  would  not 
be  made  according  to  principles  fixed  and  stable, 
but  must  depend  upon  motives  of  expediency  shift- 
ing with  the  apparent  demands  of  the  hour.  Of 
settled  convictions  upon  moral  or  religious  matters 


Suriano's  despatch  of  August  29,  1561.     T>ayard,  7(bi  supra,  p,  xlv. 
Despatch  of  Suriano,  September  8,  1561.     Ibid.,  p.  xlvi. 


FRANCOIS   DE   CHASTILLON,    LORD   OF    ANDELOT. 


i56i]  Recall  to  France  131 

she  had,  or  appeared  to  have,  few  or  none.  She 
was  profoundly  ignorant  respecting  doctrine. 

"  I  do  not  behave,"  says  Suriano,  "  that  her  Majesty 
understands  what  is  meant  by  the  word  doginas^  but  I 
suspect  that,  Hke  others  who  every  day  want  to  dispute 
concerning  reHgion — all  of  them,  or  at  least  the  greater 
part  of  them,  ignorant  people — she  confuses  dogmas, 
rites,  and  abuses,  as  if  they  were  all  one  and  the  same 
thing.  Hence  there  arises  every  form  of  confusion  in 
their  disputes  and,  possibly,  also  in  their  opinions."  ' 

But  if  Catharine  de'  Medici  was  timid  and  irreso- 
lute, there  were  others  who  had  fully  made  up  their 
minds  and  had  the  courage  inspired  by  their  con- 
victions. The  King  of  Navarre  might  waver  and 
ultimately  throw  in  his  lot  with  the  enemies  of  the 
Reformation,  but  his  younger  brother,  Conde,  had 
no  hesitation.  Nor  was  there  hesitation  on  the  part 
of  the  three  brothers  Chastillon — the  Admiral  of 
Coligny,  d'Andelot,  and  the  reforming  cardinal, 
who  though  he  still  wore  the  red  robe  as  a  member 
of  the  Roman  Sacred  College,  was,  as  we  have  seen, 
not  afraid  to  celebrate  the  Holy  Communion  and  at 
a  later  time  to  take  to  himself  a  wife,  and,  during 
his  residence  at  Queen  Elizabeth's  court,  to  do  effi- 
cient work  in  the  interest  of  the  Huguenots  and  of 
the  other  Protestants  of  the  Continent.  And,  be- 
hind these  and  other  important  nobles,  stood  a  great 
body  of  men,  titled  and  untitled,  the  majority  un- 
known as  yet  to  the  world,  though,  as  the  most 
virtuous  and  intelligent  element  of  the  population, 
exerting  a  quiet  influence,  willing  and  ready,  how- 


'  Suriano,  ubi  supra. 


132  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

ever,  should  the  occasion  come,  to  suffer  loss  of 
property  and  even  death  in  attestation  of  their  faith. 
The  times  had  clearly  changed  essentially  since 
Beza  retired  from  the  kingdom  and  sought  a  refuge 
in  hospitable  Geneva.  True,  the  battle  for  religious 
liberty  was  not  yet  won.  Legislation  was  still  hos- 
tile in  the  extreme.  It  was  no  easy  thing  for  a 
judge  to  be  both  equitable  and  observant  of  the  law ; 
and  between  the  dictates  of  the  bloodthirsty  edicts, 
as  yet  unrepealed,  and  the  dictates  of  natural  justice 
reinforced  by  a  powerful  public  sentiment  in  favour 
of  more  leniency  in  dealing  with  respectable  citizens 
whose  only  fault  was  that  they  did  not  believe  what 
the  greater  part  of  the  nation  believed  or  imagined 
that  they  believed,  the  parliaments  as  well  as  the 
lower  courts  exhibited  a  singular  record  of  inconsist- 
ency verging  upon  absurdity.  Of  all  the  incidents 
of  the  year  of  Beza's  return  to  France,  indeed,  the 
most  inconsistent  and  absurd  was  the  publication 
of  a  fresh  law,  known  from  the  time  of  its  issue  as 
the  Edict  of  July — little  better  than  an  anachronism, 
inasmuch  as  at  a  juncture  imperatively  calling  for 
the  supply  of  relief,  it  reenacted  severe  penalties 
against  all  such  as  should  attend  conventicles  where 
there  was  preaching  or  where  the  sacraments  were 
administered.  The  best  that  could  be  said  for  it 
was  that  the  measure  was  evidently  of  a  temporary 
character,  a  sop  thrown  to  the  priests  to  gain  a  brief 
respite  from  their  incessant  complaints  of  the  indul- 
gence shown  to*dissent.' 

'  The  edict  was  enacted  July  1 1,  1561.     See  Rise  of  the  Huguenots^ 
i.,  483,  foil. 


i56i]  Recall  to  France  133 

Meanwhile  the  government  had,  some  months 
before,  so  far  yielded  to  the  insistence  of  the  friends 
of  progress  as  to  decide  definitely  that  an  opportun- 
ity should  at  last  be  afforded  the  Protestants  of 
meeting  with  their  opponents  and  setting  forth  their 
views  and  the  grounds  of  those  views.  Even  the 
time  had  been  fixed.  In  an  interview  which  Ad- 
miral Coligny  held  with  the  ambassador  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  by  appointment  at  a  place  three  leagues 
distant  from  Fontainebleau,  on  the  24th  of  April, 
he  informed  him  in  profound  secrecy 

"  that  yesterday  it  was  resolved,  in  Council,  that  in 
August  next  the  king  would  assemble  his  clergy  and  keep 
a  National  Council  in  France  for  religion.  And  as  the 
Queen  of  England  had  dissuaded  the  king  from  accept- 
ing the  Council  of  Trent  and  [urged  him]  to  desire  one 
in  his  own  realm,  where  things  might  be  handled  with 
more  sincerity,  and  it  was  said  that  the  queen  would  as- 
sist him  therein,  it  is  now  thought  that  she  will  show 
herself  a  good  friend  to  the  king  and  to  the  promotion 
of  true  religion,  if  she  will  send  some  of  her  best  learned 
divines  to  this  assembly,  and  exhort  the  Princes  Pro- 
testant to  do  the  like."  ^ 

It  is  very  certain,  however,  that  if  such  were  the 
hopes  of  Coligny  and  other  leaders  of  the  Reformed 
faith,  Catharine  de'  Medici  never  had  the  idea  of 
inviting  either  Elizabeth  or  any  German  prince  to 
be  represented  in  a  French  National  Council ;  nor 
indeed  of  holding  any  Council  at  all  in  which  Pro- 
testants should  sit  as  members.     As  it  was,  about 


^  Throkmorton  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  Paris,  April  29,  1561.      Calen- 
dar of  State  Papers,  83. 


134  Theodore  Beza 


.1519- 


the  same  time  as  the  other  two  orders  of  the  king- 
dom were  in  session  in  the  so-called  States-General 
at  Pontoise,  she  summoned  all  the  bishops  of  France 
to  meet  in  the  neighbouring  convent  of  Poissy,'  at 
a  convenient  distance  from  the  royal  castle  of  Saint 
Germain  en  Laye.  In  justification  of  her  action  in 
calling  these  representatives  of  the  clergy  to  con- 
sider the  present  religious  situation  of  France  with- 
out waiting  for  the  General  Council  of  the  Church, 
which  was  the  great  desire  of  her  heart,  she  excused 
herself  by  alleging  that  she  had  no  intention  to  make 
any  innovations  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  con- 
sequently no  intention  to  do  anything  at  which  the 
Pope  could  take  umbrage. 

"  But,"  said  she,  "  those  who  are  extremely  ill  are  ex- 
cusable if  they  apply  all  sorts  of  remedies  to  alleviate 
their  pain  when  unendurable,  the  meantime  waiting  for 
the  good  physician,  which  I  esteem  must  be  a  good 
Council,  for  so  furious  and  dangerous  a  disease  of  which 
those  may  speak  with  more  boldness  who  feel  it  and  are 
most  affected  by  it."  ^ 

Moreover  she  defended  herself  for  inviting  the  Pro- 
testant ministers,  by  calling  attention  to  the  admira- 
ble opportunity  that  would  be  offered  to  convince 
them  of  the  error  of  their  ways! 

"  Having  been  requested  by  the  greater  part  of  the 
nobles  and  commons  of  this  kingdom,  a  few  months  ago, 


'  On  July  20,  according  to  Languet,  Epist.  Secret.,  ii.,  122. 
*  Catharine  to  the  Bishop  of  Rennes,  August  23,  1561,  in  Le  La- 
boureur,  Additions  aux  M(f/n.  de  Castelnau,  i.,  725. 


i56i]  Recall  to  France  135 

to  grant  a  hearing  to  the  ministers  scattered  in  various 
cities  of  this  kingdom,  on  their  Confession  of  Faith," 
she  wrote  to  the  French  ambassador  at  the  court  of  the 
Emperor,  "  I  was  advised  to  do  so  by  my  brother,  the 
King  of  Navarre,  the  rest  of  the  princes  of  the  blood,  and 
the  members  of  the  council  of  the  king  my  son.  Long 
and  mature  deliberation  has  convinced  me  that  in  such 
great  troubles  there  is  no  better  or  more  effective  means  of 
leading  the  ministers  to  abandon  their  views  and  of  draw- 
ing off  their  adherents  than  to  make  their  teaching  known 
and  discover  what  errors  and  heresies  it  contains."  ' 

It  was  determined  therefore  for  the  first  time  that 
the  Protestants  of  France  should  be  heard  in  de- 
fence of  their  doctrine — a  very  simple  and  natural 
thing,  which  they  had  been  asking  for  years  with 
persistence,  yet  a  thing  which  their  enemies  had  as 
persistently  opposed  and  denied.  They  still  op- 
posed it,  on  the  present  occasion,  with  one  solitary 
exception.  Cardinal  Lorraine,  strange  to  say,  was 
quite  willing  that  the  Protestants  should  make  a 
public  appearance  through  their  chosen  representa- 
tives, taking,  in  fact,  so  different  an  attitude  from 
that  of  his  colleagues  in  the  Sacred  College  as  to  lay 
himself  open  to  not  a  little  suspicion.  We  shall  see 
further  on  whether  this  suspicion  was  well  grounded. 

Undoubtedly,  when  the  Protestants  began  to  look 
for  the  man  best  qualified  to  represent  them  at 
Poissy,  their  minds  turned  instinctively  to  John 
Calvin,  than  whom  no  other  was  mentally  or  morally 
better  equipped — a   native   Frenchman,    moreover, 

'  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Rennes,  Sept.  14,  1561,  or  five  days  after 
Beza  spoke  at  Poissy.     Ibid.^  i.,  732. 


13^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

who  had  never  lost  his  interest  in  the  land  of  his 
birth,  but  was  more  active  than  any  other  man  aUve 
in  promoting  by  his  voice  and  by  his  pen  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Reformation  in  France.  Calvin,  how- 
ever, was  not  to  be  thought  of  for  an  instant.  With 
all  their  affection  for  him,  the  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  Paris  distinctly  told  him  so  and  gave  him 
their  reasons. 

"  We  see  no  means  of  having  you  here,"  they  wrote 
him,  "  without  grave  peril,  in  view  of  the  rage  which  all 
the  enemies  of  the  Gospel  have  conceived  against  you, 
and  the  disturbances  which  your  name  alone  would  ex- 
cite in  this  country,  were  you  known  to  be  present.  In 
fact,  the  admiral  [Coligny]  is  by  no  means  in  favour  of 
your  undertaking  the  journey,  and  we  have  learned  with 
certainty  that  the  queen  [Catharine  de'  Medici]  would 
not  relish  seeing  you.  She  says  frankly  that  she  would 
not  pledge  herself  for  your  safety,  as  for  that  of  the  rest. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  enemies  of  the  Gospel  assert  that 
they  would  be  glad  to  listen  to  all  the  other  [Reformers], 
but  that,  as  for  you,  they  could  not  bring  themselves  to 
hear  you  or  to  look  at  you.  You  see,  sir,  in  what  esteem 
you  are  held  by  these  venerable  prelates.  I  suspect  that 
you  will  not  be  much  grieved  by  it,  nor  consider  yourself 
dishonoured  by  being  so  viewed  by  such  gentry."  ^ 

On  the  contrary,  there  existed  among  the  adher- 
ents of  the  Roman  Catholic  party  no  such  inveterate 
prejudice  against  Beza.  Men  had  not  forgotten 
that  he  was  once  addicted  to  the  lighter  forms  of 
literature  and  was  a  graceful  poet.  He  would  not 
be  out  of  his  native  element  in  the  royal  court.      He 

'  X^a  Riviere  to  Calvin,  Paris,  July  31,  1561.     Bulletin^  xvi.,  603. 


i56i]  Recall  to  France  137 

mii^ht  not  equal  Calvin  in  his  mastery  of  the  science 
of  theoloi^y,  but  he  would  be  a  more  acceptable  dis- 
putant. The  believers  of  Paris  wrote  uri^nnir  him  to 
come;  so  did  also  the  Prince  of  Conde  and  Admiral 
Coligny,  who,  althoui^h  as  yet  unknown  to  him  as  a 
correspondent,  not  only  sent  him  a  letter  but  de- 
spatched a  trusty  agent  to  lay  before  him  the  abso- 
lute need  of  him  in  which  Protestant  France  stood. 
As  to  the  King  of  Navarre,  he  declared  with  his 
usual  impetuosity  that  Beza  had  no  friend  at  court 
to  whom  his  appearance  would  be  more  grateful  than 
to  him,  and  he  promised  cheerfully  to  do  everything 
in  his  power  for  the  Reformer.' 

Still  Beza  delayed  his  coming.  This  is  not  sur- 
prising. The  Edict  of  July,  to  which  reference  has 
been  made,  was  poor  evidence  of  any  intention  on 
the  part  of  the  court  to  deal  fairly  by  Protestantism, 
whose  condition,  so  far  as  public  worship  was  con- 
cerned, it  rendered  worse  rather  than  better.  The 
Protestants  at  Paris  were  nearly  in  despair.  The 
colloquy  of  prelates  was  in  session  and  the  time 
was  short.  Men  began  to  say  that  the  Protestants 
would  not  dare  to  appear  before  so  goodly  a  com- 
pany and  stand  up  for  their  errors.  Should  the 
colloquy  finish  its  business  and  adjourn  without 
their  having  presented  themselves  to  maintain  the 
cause  of  the  Gospel,  the  mouths  of  the  malevolent 
would  be  open  to  decry  their  pusillanimity  and  as- 
perse their  religion.  The  princes  hitherto  favour- 
able  would   be   distrusted.     Catharine   de'    Medici. 


^  See  the  letters  of  La  Riviere  and  the  others,  in  Caum,  ii.  (doc). 
34.  35- 


138  Theodore  Beza  [1561 

never  slow  to  make  cutting  speeches,  was  already 
saying  to  one  and  another  that  she  would  never  be 
able  to  persuade  herself  that  the  Reformers  had  any 
right  on  their  side  if  they  failed  to  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity offered  them  to  manifest  and  maintain  the 
grounds  of  their  faith.  We  have  an  earnest  letter 
in  which  the  Protestants  of  Paris  laid  the  situation 
before  Beza,  imploring  him  to  make  no  tarrying, 
and  assuring  him  that  the  Edict  of  July — better 
understood  at  home  than  it  could  be  understood  at 
a  distance — had  been  simply  made  to  satisfy  King 
Philip  of  Spain  and  the  Pope  and  to  extract  money 
from  the  purses  of  the  reluctant  prelates  of  Poissy — 
bad  motives,  doubtless,  but  containing  nothing  to 
discourage  the  advocates  of  the  truth.'  Nor  was 
this  all.  Antoine  of  Navarre  again  wrote  by  a 
special  messenger,  this  time  to  "  the  magnificent 
Lords,  the  Syndics  and  Council  of  the  Seigniory  of 
Geneva, ' '  praying  them  in  the  most  affectionate  man- 
ner to  consent  to  send  his  "  dear  and  well-beloved 
Theodore  de  Beze,"  than  whom  he  could  ask  for  no 
person  more  highly  approved,  and  to  despatch  him  as 
expeditiously  as  possible  **  to  the  end  that  his  delay 
might  not  hinder  the  progress  of  so  good  a  work."  " 
It  was  no  longer  decent  or  possible  to  turn  a  deaf 
ear  to  such  appeals.  Without  waiting  even  for  a 
safe-conduct,  Beza  set  off  on  the  i6th  of  August  for 
the  scene  of  the  coming  theological  encounter.  Six 
days  later  he  reached  Paris. 


'  La  Riviere  in  the  name  of  the  whole  Church,  Paris,  August  xo, 
1561.     Baum,  ii.  (doc),  37-39- 
^  /bid,,  ii.  (doc),  39,  40, 


CHAPTER  IX 

RECEPTION   AT   COURT 
1561 

TH  E  first  tidings  that  awaited  Beza  upon  his  arrival 
in  Paris  were  by  no  means  encouraging.  It  is 
true  that  he  was  informed  that  a  number  of  his  col- 
leagues, delegates  of  Huguenot  Churches,  some  eight 
pastors  in  all,  had  reached  the  court  of  France  be- 
fore him,  and  had  been  received  by  the  king  pub- 
licly and  with  the  utmost  kindness.  Charles  was 
pleased  to  permit  them  to  present  him  a  petition, 
and  assured  them,  meanwhile  looking  upon  them 
"  with  a  very  goodly  countenance,"  that  he  would 
communicate  their  requests  to  his  council  and  reply 
to  them  by  his  chancellor.  And,  inasmuch  as  these 
requests  were  to  the  effect  that  their  avowed 
enemies,  the  ecclesiastics,  should  not  be  permitted 
to  act  as  their  judges,  but  that  the  king  himself 
should  preside  at  the  approaching  colloquy,  and 
that  the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  their  Hebrew  and 
Greek  originals  should  form  the  sole  ground  for  the 
decision  of  controverted  points,  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  Protestants  might  well  be  pardoned  for  en- 
tertaining sanguine  expectations  of  the  issue.'     But, 

1  Hist.  EccUs.,  i.,  542,  foil. 

139 


I40  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

on  the  other  hand,  there  came  news  of  plots  on  the 
part  of  their  antagonists,  no  longer,  as  was  believed, 
vai^n  rumours,  but  ascertained  facts.  A  still  more 
tangible  cause  for  apprehension  was  that  the  very 
chief  of  their  enemies — the  same  Duke  of  Guise 
who,  after  the  enactment  of  the  intolerant  Edict  of 
July,  boasted  that  his  sword  would  never  rest  in  its 
scabbard  when  the  execution  of  this  law  was  con- 
cerned— expected  to  reach  the  royal  court  on  the 
morrow,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  band  of  friends 
and  retainers.  Well  might  Beza  write  to  Calvin, 
when  he  had  been  but  a  few  hours  in  Paris,  that  he 
did  not  know  but  that  he  had  fallen  rather  upon  a 
civil  war  than  upon  a  peaceable  conference.^ 

To  feelings  of  discouragement  must  soon  have 
succeeded  more  cheerful  emotions.  The  King  of 
France  and  his  court  had  for  some  time  been  at  his 
castle  or  palace  of  Saint  Germain,  or,  as  it  was  de- 
signated more  particularly,  in  order  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  six-  or  seven-score  places  bearing  the  name 
of  one  of  the  most  popular  worthies  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  calendar,  Saint  Germain  en  Laye.  The 
very  day  of  Beza's  arrival  at  Paris,  a  messenger  rode 
in  haste  to  convey  to  the  expectant  and  delighted 
Huguenot  nobles  about  his  Majesty  the  welcome 
intelligence  that  the  man  upon  whom  more  than 
upon  any  other  they  depended  in  the  approaching 
struggle  was  safe  and  ready  to  come  to  their  aid. 
The  distance  yet  to  be  traversed  by  the  Genevese 
Reformer  was  but  fourteen  miles.  Before  nightfall  a 
return  messenger  was  despatched  to  beg  him  to  come 

^  Beza  to  Calvin,  August  22,  1561.      Baum,  ii.  (tloc),  44,  45. 


i56i]  Reception  at  Court  141 

at  once  to  the  royal  court.  Accordingly,  the  next 
day  (August  23d),  Beza  set  forth  on  horseback, 
accompanied  by  a  cavalcade  of  friendly  Huguenots, 
reaching  in  time  for  the  evening  meal  the  abode  of 
the  Cardinal  of  Chastillon  at  Saint  Germain,  where 
he  and  the  delegates  of  the  French  Protestant 
Churches  were  to  be  hospitably  entertained." 

He  was  not  allowed  to  eat  in  peace,  so  anxious 
were  his  friends  to  see  him  and  so  pressing  were  the 
invitations  to  come  to  the  castle  or  palace.  A  flat- 
tering reception  awaited  him.  On  entering  he  was 
met  by  the  new  Chancellor  of  France,  not  so  famous 
now  as  he  was  destined  shortly  to  become,  nor  so 
thoroughly  understood  to  be  a  lover  of  country  and 
of  toleration,  the  learned  and  venerable  Michel  de 
r Hospital.  That  great  man  coveted  the  honour  of 
introducing  Beza  at  the  French  court,  as  Beza  clearly 
saw  and  afterwards  wrote  down ;  but  the  Reformer, 
not  recognising  the  great  heart  of  L' Hospital,  and 
the  great  patriotism  which  that  heart  contained,  was 
wary  and  suspicious.  There  was  no  time,  however, 
for  conference.  At  the  door  of  the  chamber  into 
which  he  passed,  Beza  found  himself  confronted 
with  a  number  of  the  grandees  of  the  kingdom. 
First  came  the  great  admiral,  Gaspard  de  Coligny, 
whom  he  had  barely  time  to  salute  before  the  King 
of  Navarre  and  his  brother,  the  Prince  of  Cond6, 
threw  themselves  upon  him,  "  with  a  very  great 
affection,  it  seemed  to  me,"  as  Beza,  who  by  this 
time  was  tolerably  well  acquainted  with  the  shallow 
and  untrustworthy  character  of  the  elder  Bourbon, 

'  Languet,  Epistolce  Secretes,  ii.,  140, 


142  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

noted  not  without  some  pardonable  misgivings. 
Meanwhile,  two  prelates  drew  near,  the  cardinals  of 
Bourbon  and  of  Chastillon,  both  of  whom  offered 
him  their  hands.  It  were  to  be  wished  that  Beza 
had  found  space  to  relate,  in  his  letter  to  Calvin,  all 
that  was  said,  for  the  little  that  he  did  set  down  is 
enough  to  show  that  in  quickness  and  in  tact  he  was 
quite  ready  for  the  occasion.  As  he  grasped  the. 
proffered  hand  of  Cardinal  Bourbon,  he  could  not 
deny  himself  the  satisfaction  of  protesting,  doubt- 
less with  a  mischievous  twinkle  of  the  eye,  that  he, 
Beza,  had  undergone  no  change  since — at  Nerac,  a 
year  ago — the  prelate  had  declined  to  speak  to  him, 
for  fear  of  being  excommunicated.  The  poor  cardi- 
nal, in  his  embarrassment,  could  only  answer  that  he 
was  desirous  of  understanding  matters  in  truth ;  to 
which  Beza  naturally  replied  by  begging  Bourbon 
to  abide  by  his  purpose  and  by  offering  his  own  serv- 
ices to  that  end.  A  discussion  had  almost  begun, 
but  both  saw  that  it  was  no  suitable  time  for  con- 
troversy, and  stopped.  To  Bourbon's  brother,  the 
King  of  Navarre,  Beza  playfully,  yet  earnestly,  ob- 
served that  he  greatly  feared  that  his  Majesty  would 
soon  be  less  joyful  at  his  arrival,  unless  he  (the  king) 
made  up  his  mind  to  change  his  present  course  of 
action.  To  this  Antoine  replied  by  an  outburst  of 
laughter,  and  Beza  in  turn  confined  himself  to  assur- 
ing him  that  the  words  were  spoken  in  all  seriousness 
and  that  he  would  do  well  to  think  upon  the 
matter. 

Such,  almost  in  Beza's  own  words,  were  the  in- 
cidents of  the  first  few  minutes  of  his  stay  at  Saint 


i56i]  Reception  at  Court  143 

Germain.  New  honours  awaited  him.  He  was 
conducted  by  a  company  "  far  greater  than  he  could 
have  expected,"  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  Princess 
of  Conde  and  to  the  wife  of  Admiral  Coh^ny. 
The  next  day,  which  was  Sunday,  in  the  lodgings 
of  the  Prince  of  Conde,  and  in  the  presence  of  a 
large  and  honourable  company  that  had  assembled 
to  hear  him,  the  Genevese  Reformer  preached  a  Pro- 
testant discourse.  At  that  very  moment  the  prince 
himself  was  joining  with  the  Duke  of  Guise,  before 
the  queen-mother  and  the  royal  council,  in  a  solemn 
act  of  amity  and  reconciliation.  The  Duke  of  Guise 
solemnly  asseverated  that  he  was  in  nowise  the 
cause  or  author  of  the  prince's  imprisonment  at  Or- 
leans, and  when  the  prince  had  declared  that  he  held 
to  be  wicked  all  that  had  been  its  cause,  the  duke 
positively  asserted  that  he  thought  so  too,  and  that 
the  matter  did  not  concern  him  at  all.  It  was  a 
farce,  whose  insincerity  was  transparent  to  all  eyes, 
played  with  scarcely  an  attempt,  on  the  part  of  the 
actors,  to  conceal  its  worthlessness.  All  that  it 
effected  was  to  permit  the  prince  and  the  duke  to 
meet  in  the  ordinary  intercourse  of  life  with  the 
semblance  of  having  buried  all  recollection  of  the 
unfortunate  Tumult  of  Amboise  and  of  the  subse- 
quent counterplot  to  destroy  the  Bourbon  princes 
in  the  last  hours  of  the  reign  of  Francis  II. 

That  day  the  Protestant  deputies  received  from 
the  king  a  favourable  reply  to  the  petition  which 
has  already  been  referred  to.  They  were  assured, 
although  the  promise  was  not  as  yet  in  writing  and 
in  authentic  form,  that  they  should  be  admitted  to 


144  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

an  audience  and  that  their  opponents  should  not  be 
suffered  to  act  as  their  judges. 

At  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  Beza  was 
summoned  to  the  chamber  of  the  King  of  Navarre. 
Great  was  his  surprise,  on  entering,  to  find  that,  in- 
stead of  Antoine  alone,  there  were  gathered  the 
queen-mother,  Catharine  de'  Medici,  Prince  Conde, 
the  Duke  d'Etampes,  Cardinals  Bourbon  and  Lor- 
raine, and  one  or  two  ladies  of  the  court.  Startled 
though  he  was  and  possibly  suspecting  some  snare 
laid  for  him,  the  Reformer  did  not  lose  his  self-pos- 
session and  promptly  addressed  himself  to  Catharine. 
In  a  few  words  he  laid  before  her  the  reason  of  his 
coming  to  France.  This  was  in  brief  his  earnest 
desire  to  be  of  service  to  his  native  land.  The 
queen-mother  replied  courteously  and  kindly,  ex- 
pressing her  very  great  joy  should  a  conclusion  in 
very  deed  be  reached  that  might  procure  peace  and 
quiet  to  the  realm.  Thus  far  there  was  not  a  ripple 
to  disturb  the  interview.  Apparently  Cardinal  Lor- 
raine did  not  intend  that  it  should  end  so  amicably. 
After  some  complimentary  words,  in  which  he  ac- 
knowledged the  intellectual  ability  of  the  new-comer, 
he  added  that  he  had  hitherto  known  Beza  merely 
by  his  writings,  but  now  that  he  had  come  he  ex- 
horted him  to  study  the  peace  and  concord  of  the 
kingdom.  As  Beza  had  heretofore  afflicted  France, 
he  now  had  it  in  his  power  to  assuage  her  woes. 
The  taunt  did  not  pass  unanswered.  Again  Beza 
protested  the  fervency  of  his  desire  to  serve  his  king 
and  his  country.  It  stood  next  only  to  his  de- 
sire to  serve  his  God.     "  So  great  a  kingdom  as 


i5<.i]  Reception  at  Gourt  145 

France,"  he  said,  "  has  nothing  to  fear  in  the  way 
of  disturbance  from  my  slender  abilities.  Nay,  the 
idea  of  such  a  thing  has  ever  been  as  alien  as  pos- 
sible from  my  thoughts.  My  writings  have  shown 
this,  and  a  comparison  of  their  contents  will  make 
it  plain. "  "  Have  you  written  anything  in  French  ? ' ' 
asked  the  queen-mother.  To  this  Beza  replied  :  "  I 
have  written  a  translation  of  the  Psalms,  and  a  cer- 
tain Answer  to  the  Confession  of  the  Duke  of  North- 
umberland."  Catharine's  question,  it  came  out,  had 
been  occasioned  by  the  circulation  in  France  of  an 
insulting  song,  ascribed  to  Beza  as  its  author,  the 
previous  year.  Beza  positively  and  at  some  length 
denied  that  the  song  in  question  emanated  from 
him. 

The  mention  of  defamatory  books  brought  on  a 
theological  discussion. 

"  I  have  at  Poissy,"  said  the  cardinal,  **  a  book  at- 
tributed to  you,  treating  of  the  Sacrament,  in  which  you 
assert  what  seems  to  me  an  absurdity,  that  Christ  is  as 
much  to  be  sought  in  the  Lord's  Supper  as  before  He 
was  born  of  the  Virgin.  Moreover,  I  am  told,  although 
this  I  am  not  willing  to  affirm,  as  I  have  never  seen  the 
book,  that  you  state  that  Christ  is  not  more  in  Cccna  than 
tn  Cceno  ' ' 

— a  play  upon  words,  signifying  "  not  more  in  the 
Slipper  than  in  tJie  mire.''  At  this  the  queen- 
mother  and  the  other  listeners  were  evidently 
moved,  but  Beza  quietly  replied  that,  when  the 
books  were  produced,  he  would  not  disavow  them, 
if  they  were  his.     As  to  the  two  propositions  which 


H^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  cardinal  had  referred  to,  the  sense  of  the  former 
might  be  true,  although  only  an  inspection  of  the 
book  would  show  that;  but  the  latter  could  not  be 
found  either  in  his  books  or  in  those  of  anyone  else 
possessed  of  the  slightest  intelligence  in  the  world. 

Our  Confession  of  Faith,"  he  added,  "  proves  in 
what  reverence  we  hold  the  Sacraments." 

The  discussion  drifted  into  an  argument  respecting 
the  meaning  of  the  words  of  our  Lord  in  the  institu- 
tion of  His  Supper.  "  I  teach  the  children  of  my 
diocese,"  said  the  cardinal,  "  when  they  are  asked 
the  question,  *  What  is  the  bread  in  the  Supper  ?  ' 
to  answer  that  it  is  the  body  of  Christ.  Do  you  find 
fault  with  this  ?  "  **  Why  should  I  not  approve  the 
words  of  Christ  ?  "  repHed  Beza.  "  But  the  ques- 
tion is,  '  In  what  way  is  the  bread  called  the  body 
of  Christ  ?  '  "  Hereupon  he  proceeded  to  set  forth 
his  own  and  the  Reformed  view — namely,  that  the 
signs  used  retain  their  original  nature,  the  bread 
continuing  to  be  bread  and  the  wine  to  be  wine; 
that  the  thing  signified  in  the  Sacrament  is  the  very 
body  of  Christ  affixed  to  the  cross  and  His  very  blood 
poured  out  on  the  cross ;  that  the  bread  and  water 
used  are  not  common  bread  and  water,  from  which, 
however,  they  differ  only  in  that  they  become  visible 
signs  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  that  there- 
fore the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  so  far  as  they  are 
truly  given  and  communicated,  are  truly  present  in 
the  use  of  the  Supper,  not,  as  they  are  esteemed  to 
be,  under,  or  in,  or  with  the  bread,  or  anywhere  else 
than  in  heaven  whither  Christ  has  ascended,  that 
there  He  may  reside,  so  far  as  appertains  to  His  human 


i56i]  Reception  at  Court  i47 

nature,  until  He  shall  return  to  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead  ;  finally,  that,  in  the  Communion,  the  visible 
signs  are  given  us  to  be  taken  by  the  hand,  to  be 
eaten,  to  be  drunk  in  a  natural  manner,  but,  so  far 
as  the  thing  signified  is  concerned,  that  is,  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ,  they  are  offered  indeed  to  all, 
but  they  cannot  be  partaken  of  save  spiritually  and 
by  faith,  not  by  the  hand,  not  by  the  mouth. 

Once  and  again  in  the  course  of  the  conversation, 
the  cardinal  expressed  his  acquiescence  in  the  doc- 
trine propounded.  He  rejoiced  greatly,  he  said,  to 
hear  that  these  were  the  sentiments  of  Beza  and  his 
friends,  for  he  had  understood  that  they  had  thought 
differently.  At  one  point  he  expressed  a  hope  that 
for  himself  he  might  retain  the  doctrine  of  Tran- 
substantiation ;  yet  he  conceded  that  it  might  be 
omitted  by  the  theologians,  and  he  indeed  would 
be  unwilling  that  there  should  be  a  schism  in  the 
churches  because  of  Transubstantiation.  Later  on, 
he  protested  that  he  was  not  urgent  in  behalf  of 
Transubstantiation  and  admitted  that  Christ  must  be 
sought  for  in  heaven.  In  fact  he  plainly  showed  to 
the  skilled  disputant  with  whom  he  had  to  do  that 
his  views  were  by  no  means  settled,  and  that  he  had 
no  true  mastery  of  the  subject.  His  time,  he  said, 
had  been  taken  up  with  other  studies.  At  length 
he  went  so  far  as  to  say : 

"  I  am  unpractised  in  discussions  of  this  kind,  but  you 
have  heard  what  I  would  say."  "  And  you  in  like  man- 
ner," returned  Beza,  "  have  heard  from  me  what  should 
satisfy  yoo.  I  sum  all  up  thus:  The  bread  is  the  body 
of  Christ  sacramentally,  that  is,  although  that  body  is  to- 


14B  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

day  in  heaven  and  nowhere  else,  yet  the  signs  are  with 
us  upon  the  earth.  Yet  just  so  truly  is  that  body  given 
to  us,  and  just  so  truly  is  it  partaken  of  by  us  through 
faith,  and  that  to  life  eternal  because  of  God's  promise, 
as  the  sign  is  naturally  extended  to  our  hands." 

Beza's  statement  contented,  or  seemed  to  con- 
tent, the  cardinal.  Turning  to  the  queen-mother, 
who  had  sat  through  the  long  discussion,  *  *  Madam, ' ' 
he  said,  **  I  believe  so  too,  and  this  satisfies  me." 
Whereupon  Beza  also  addressed  her  and  exclaimed : 
"Behold  then  those  wretched  ' Sacramentarians' 
so  long  vexed  and  borne  down  with  all  sorts  of 
calumnies!  " 

There  was  an  animated  scene  for  a  moment. 
Catharine  de'  Medici,  overjoyed,  was  not  silent. 
**  Do  you  hear,  my  lord  cardinal,  that  the  opinion 
of  the  Sacramentarians  is  none  other  than  that  which 
you  yourself  have  approved  ?"  She  added  a  few 
words  about  union  and  conciliation.  Cardinal  Lor- 
raine himself  congratulated  the  Reformer  and  said 
these  very  words  to  him:  **  Monsieur  de  Beze,  I 
have  greatly  rejoiced  to  see  and  hear  you.  I  adjure 
you,  in  God's  name,  to  let  me  understand  your 
reasons  and  that  you  also  understand  mine.  And 
you  will  not  find  me  so  black  as  some  people  make 
me  to  be."  Beza  thanked  him  and  in  turn  begged 
him  not  to  desist  from  pursuing  the  path  of  concilia- 
tion, professing  his  own  purpose  to  use  for  this  end 
every  gift  God  had  conferred  upon  him.  Thus  the 
disputants  separated  and  the  little  gathering  broke 
up.     Not,  however,  before  witty  Madame  de  Cursol, 


i56i]  Reception  at  Court  149 

one  of  the  auditors,  who  understood  the  cardinal 
well,  had  taken  his  hand  as  she  bade  him  good-nio-ht 
with  the  significant  words:  "  Good  man  for  this 
evening;  but  to-morrow,  what?"  With  a  true 
intuition  she  foresaw  precisely  what  came  to  pass. 
Scarcely  had  the  next  morning  come  when  the  car- 
dinal was  boasting  that  he  had  overcome  Beza  and 
brought  him  over  to  his  opinion/ 

All  these  particulars  we  learn  from  a  letter  which 
Beza  despatched  to  Calvin  the  following  evening. 
Upon  the  receipt  of  it  Calvin,  not  a  little  amused  at 
Lorraine's  pretended  friendship,  wrote  to  warn  Beza 
not  to  trust  the  prelate's  professions.  Thirteen 
years  before,  he  told  him,  a  papal  legate,  the  Cardi- 
nal of  Ferrara,  had  imposed  upon  him  (Calvin),  lav- 
ishing caresses  upon  him  and  promising  to  be  the 
best  of  friends.  And  he  added  playfully  his  advice 
that  Beza  should  not  display  any  over-elation  be- 
cause of  Cardinal  Lorraine's  effusive  demonstration, 
nor  assume  lordly  airs  toward  him,  his  fellow- 
Reformer,  in  view  of  the  circumstance  that  Calvin 
could  so  easily  retaliate,  particularly  inasmuch  as  a 
papal  legate  is  the  superior  of  any  and  every  simple 
cardinal.'^ 

Meanwhile  it  looked  as  if  the  Parisian  Protestants 
might  have  spared  themselves  the  feverish  haste  with 
which  they  sent  for   Beza,  and   that   Beza   himself 

'  Beza  to  Calvin,  Saint  Germain,  August  25,  1561,  in  Baum,  Theo- 
dor  Beza,  ii.  (doc),  45-54.  Baum  gives  both  the  original  French 
form  and  the  subsequently  revised  Latin  translation.  See,  also,  La 
Place,  Edition  Pantheon,  155-157  ;  Histoire  Eccle'siastique,  i.,  551, 
552  ;    Calvini  Opera,  xviii.,  630-641. 

^Calvin  to  Beza,  September  3,  1561.      Calvini  Opera,  xviii.,  674. 


150  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

might  have  come  by  slower  stages.  The  prelates 
were  in  no  hurry  to  meet  either  the  representatives 
of  the  Protestant  Churches  or  the  Reformer  from 
Geneva.  They  had  been  in  session  for  three  weeks. 
Instead  of  any  more  imposing  designation  which 
would,  if  it  approached  the  notion  of  a  national 
synod,  have  excited  the  ire  of  the  Pope,  their  coming 
together  had,  as  we  have  seen,  been  styled  a  colloqiiy, 
that  is,  a  more  or  less  informal  conference.  Their 
time  had  thus  far  been  spent  to  little  profit ;  in  angry 
wrangHng  over  such  matters  as  the  discipline  of  the 
Church,  the  number  of  priests,  the  dignity  of  the 
episcopate  and  of  cathedral  churches,  and  the  re- 
formation' of  the  monastic  rules.  They  were  fully 
determined,  after  they  had  settled  all  these  matters, 
to  adjourn  and  go  home,  without  giving  the  slightest 
attention  to  the  true  object  for  which  they  had  been 
convened.^ 

Happily,  Catharine  de'  Medici  was  for  the  time 
under  the  influence  of  good  advisers,  among  whom 
were  prominent  the  liberal  Bishop  of  Valence  and 
the  new  chancellor,  Michel  de  1' Hospital.  The  one 
or  the  other  of  these  two  men  was  probably  the  true 
author  of  a  letter  which  Catharine  had  recently  sent 
to  the  Pope  over  her  own  signature,  outlining  the 
radical  changes  which  she  regarded  as  necessary  con- 
cessions to  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Being  ready  to 
give  up  image  worship,  the  denial  of  the  cup  to  the 
laity  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  use  of  the  Latin 
language  in  public  worship,  the  practice  of  the  cele- 
bration of  private  masses,  and  other  abuses  to  which 

>  See  De  Thou,  bk.  2S  (iii.,  63). 


i56i]  Reception  at  Court  151 

the  bigots  clung  tenaciously/  she  was  not  likely  to 
listen  with  patience  to  the  protests  of  a  few  bishops 
who  had  the  effrontery  to  propose  to  disperse  with- 
out giving  a  moment's  consideration  to  the  vital 
questions  that  were  occupying  the  serious  thoughts 
of  a  great  part  of  France  and  threatened  to  create 
a  lasting  schism.  But  the  delays  were  interminable, 
and  the  air  was  full  of  rumours  that  the  Protestants 
would  either  fail  of  obtaining  the  hearing  for  which 
they  had  been  brought  to  Saint  Germain,  or,  if 
heard  at  all,  would  be  heard  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
defeat  the  very  object  in  view.  The  dilatory  govern- 
ment was  brought  to  the  necessity  of  instant  de- 
cision when,  on  the  8th  of  September,  Beza  having 
been  fully  sixteen  days  at  Saint  Germain,  the  Pro- 
testant ministers,  envoys  of  the  churches,  presented 
themselves  before  Catharine  de'  Medici,  and  respect- 
fully but  firmly  demanded  that  impartial  treatment 
which  they  had  been  promised,  and  assured  her  that 
they  would  immediately  leave  unless  measures  were 
taken  to  defeat  the  machinations  of  their  enemies. 

Whatever  hesitation  Catharine  had  displayed  at 
once  disappeared.  Before  being  dismissed  from  her 
presence,  the  ministers  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
informal  action  taken  by  the  members  of  the  royal 
council  that  were  present,  granting  essentially  all 
the  Protestant  requests.  The  prelates  would  not  be 
their  judges.  The  minutes  of  the  proceedings  would 
be  reduced  to  writing  by  one  of  the  secretaries  of 

'  Catharine's  remarkable  letter  to  Pius  IV.,  of  August  4,  1 561,  in 
Gerdesius,  Scrinium  Antics.,  v.,  339,  etc,  Rise  of  the  Huguenots^  i., 
§00,  501, 


152  Theodore  Beza  [1561 

state,  but  to  this  official  record  the  Protestants 
might  add  notes  or  comments  of  their  own.  The 
young  king,  Charles  IX.,  would  be  present,  in 
company  with  the  princes  of  the  blood.  To  this 
determination  Catharine  remained  firm.  The  Sor- 
bonne,  or  theological  faculty  of  the  University  of 
Paris,  sent  some  of  their  number  to  wait  upon  her, 
entreating  her  to  give  no  audience  to  heretics  whose 
teachincrs  the  Church  had  heretofore  often  con- 
demned,  or,  at  least,  if  she  would  hear  them  herself, 
not  to  suffer  her  young  son's  orthodoxy  to  be  jeo- 
pardised by  exposure  to  such  infection.  But  Cath- 
arine was  inflexible.  The  conference  was  appointed 
for  the  morrow,  and  Charles  IX.  and  his  suite  were 
to  hear  what  the  Reformers  had  to  say  for  them- 
selves and  for  their  teachings. 


CHAPTER  X 

SPEECH   AT   THE   COLLOQUY   OF   POISSY 
1561 

THE  occurrence  which  is  next  to  be  described 
constitutes  one  of  the  critical  events  in  the 
history  of  the  Reformation  in  France.  Its  import- 
ance can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 

The  adherents  of  the  Reformed  Churches  had  one 
standing  grievance  to  allege  against  the  established 
Church  and  against  the  government  which  in  the 
religious  domain  did  little  more  than  carry  out  the 
suggestions  of  that  Church.  They  maintained  that 
the  faith  they  professed  was  rational  and  Scriptural. 
Each  separate  doctrine  was  based  upon  some  dis- 
tinct utterance  of  the  Word  of  God.  Instead  of 
being  newly  invented,  their  belief  was  the  original 
belief  of  the  Christian  Church.  Upon  every  point 
where  it  differed  from  the  present  creed  and  the 
current  practice,  antiquity  was  in  their  favour. 
Their  opponents  who  cloaked  themselves  with  the 
pretence  of  following  immemorial  usage  were  them- 
selves innovators,  since  they  upheld  a  system  that 
came  into  existence  long  after  the  times  of  the 
Apostles,  so  that  at  best  it  was  fairly  entitled  only 

153 


154  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

to  the  designation  of  inveterate  error.  These  Pro- 
testant claims  appeared  to  the  multitude  and  even 
to  the  greater  part  of  educated  men  at  first  sight 
strange  and  paradoxical ;  for  they  involved  an  over- 
turning of  all  preconceived  notions. 

But  the  Reformers  did  not  ask  to  be  believed  on 
their  own  simple  assertion.  From  the  greatest  to 
the  least  they  offered  to  prove  the  truth  of  their 
statements  by  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments. 

Their  adversaries  stopped  their  ears.  They  would 
not  listen  to  the  Protestants  when  living  and  still 
less  when  dying.  If  a  martyr  undertook  to  vindicate 
the  doctrine  for  which  he  was  suffering  the  torture 
of  slow  death  by  fire,  his  voice  was  conveniently 
drowned  by  the  incessant  beating  of  drums,  unless, 
indeed,  a  gag  of  wood  or  iron  had  already  been 
forced  into  his  mouth  to  impose  silence  upon 
him. 

All  that  the  Reformers  asked  of  the  ruling  powers 
was  to  be  heard.  If  they  could  but  gain  the  ear  of 
the  king,  they  made  sure  that  their  arguments  were 
so  convincing,  the  truth  so  patent,  that  there  could 
be  little  fear  of  the  result.  If  he  would  listen 
kindly,  candidly,  impartially,  they  cared  little  for 
anything  else;  but  they  insisted  that  he  and  no  one 
else  should  preside  at  the  audience,  and  that  their 
enemies  should  not  pronounce  upon  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  their  allegations.  If  this  last  was  to  be 
the  case,  that  is,  if  the  "  Gospel,"  as  they  confid- 
ently styled  their  doctrine,  was  to  be  granted  a 
pretended  hearing  only  to  be  subjected  to  the  in- 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  155 

dignity  of  a  prearranged  humiliation  and  defeat — in 
this  case,  and  in  this  case  alone,  they  were  resolved 
to  refuse  to  plead.  Even  personal  affront  was  of 
little  account,  so  long  as  it  affected  them  alone. 
Only  let  the  Word  have  a  fair  hearing.  All  else 
was  immaterial. 

It  will  be  seen  that  just  this  personal  affront  was 
to  be  offered  them  in  the  coming  encounter. 
Strange  to  say,  John  Calvin  had  predicted,  some 
ten  years  before,  the  very  insult  which  was  put 
upon  the  Reformers  at  Poissy,  and  had  then  ex- 
pressed in  their  name  a  willingness  to  endure  it. 
For  when,  on  the  24th  of  January,  1551,  he  dedi- 
cated to  young  King  Edward  VI.  of  England  his 
Commentary  on  the  Catholic  Epistles  of  the  New 
Testament,  he  exclaimed  with  reference  to  the 
attitude  of  inferiority  in  which  the  enemies  of  the 
Reformation  so  persistently  sought  to  place  its 
friends,  **  Theii  let  them  sit ,  provided  we  are  heard, 
declaring  theTrtitJi  while  standing.'*  ^ 

It  was  therefore  with  no  slight  sense  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  occasion,  and  with  a  hearty  prayer 
to  Heaven  for  help  to  make  good  use  of  it,  that, 
about  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  Tuesday,  Sep- 
tember 9,  1561,  Theodore  Beza  set  out  for  Poissy, 
escorted  by  a  strong  detachment  of  about  one  hun- 
dred horsemen,  sent  as  a  body-guard  to  preclude  the 
possibility  of  any  such  treacherous  attack  as,  in  the 
present  excited  condition  of  the  public  mind,  would 


^  Calvin,  Dedication  to  Edward  VI.  prefixed  to  Cath.  Epistles. 
Dated  Geneva,  January  24,  1551.  Calvini  Opera.,  xiv.,  34.  "  Sedeant 
illi,  modo  nos  stando  quod  verum  est  proferentes  audiamur." 


156  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

have  been  nothing  less  than  a  national  disaster. 
With  him  rode,  also  on  horseback,  those  faithful 
and  courageous  men,  the  ministers  and  thie  repre- 
sentatives of  the  churches  to  whom  had  been  prayer- 
fully entrusted  such  a  commission  as  all  felt  it  had 
never  before  been  the  privilege  and  responsibility 
of  any  similar  body  of  men  to  discharge.  It  is  not 
probable  that,  even  without  Beza,  they  would  have 
proved  unequal  to  the  task  of  setting  forth  with 
clearness  and  force  the  Protestant  side  in  the  great 
controversy.  In  an  age  much  addicted  to  discus- 
sion, these  were  picked  men,  whose  equals,  for 
learning  as  well  as  natural  ability,  could  scarcely 
have  been  found,  man  for  man,  throughout  the 
kingdom.  Three  or  four  ministers  stood  forth 
preeminent.  Augustin  Marlorat,  of  Rouen,  was 
the  distinguished  man  who  after  the  siege  and  capt- 
ure of  the  capital  of  Normandy,  not  much  over  a 
year  later,  in  the  first  civil  war,  was  judicially  mur- 
dered for  his  religion's  sake  by  the  provincial  Parlia- 
ment. Nicholas  des  Gallars  was  the  well-known 
pastor  of  the  French  refugees  at  London.  John 
Raymond  Merlin,  a  skilful  professor  of  Hebrew  at 
Geneva,  was  that  same  chaplain  of  Admiral  Coligny 
who  was  as  by  a  miracle  saved  from  the  dagger 
when,  in  1572,  his  patron  was  assassinated  at  the 
Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day,  and  who  sub- 
sequently, when  lying  in  the  garret  into  which  in  his 
flight  he  had  fallen,  was  as  strangely  saved  from 
starvation  by  the  hen  that  daily  came  and  laid  an 
egg  for  his  supply.  Francois  de  Saint  Paul,  more 
famed  as  a  theologian,  came  from  distant  Provence, 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  i57 

where  he  was  honoured  as  the  founder  of  more  than 
one  church. 

The  distance  from  the  castle  of  Saint  Germain  to 
the  nuns'  convent  at  Poissy  is  possibly  a  little  over 
three  miles.  A  straight  and  broad  avenue  led  from 
the  one  place  to  the  other,  cutting  off  the  greater 
part  of  the  extensive  forest  of  Saint  Germain  on  the 
right  from  the  small  portion  that  lay  on  the  left 
hand.  It  required  less  than  half  an  hour  for  Beza 
to  reach  his  destination.  The  Duke  of  Guise,  to 
whom  this  duty  had  been  assigned,  received  him 
with  as  gracious  an  aspect  as  he  could  assume  and 
handed  him  and  his  associates  over  to  the  conduct 
of  the  captain  of  the  royal  guard.  Following  the 
latter,  they  were  subsequently  ushered  into  the 
presence  of  Charles  IX.' 

The  large  refectory  of  the  conventual  edifice  had 
been  prepared  for  the  unusual  meeting,  as  best  it 
could  be,  at  short  notice.  A  quaint  engraving  of 
the  time,  which  Montfaucon  has  reproduced  in  his 
Monuments  de  la  Monarchie  FraiK^oise,^  may  help  us 
to  form  an  idea  of  the  place  in  which  were  assembled 
all  the  most  distinguished  personages  of  France. 

The  tables  of  the  nuns  ran  along  the  sides  of  the 
room,  the  table  of  the  abbess  along  the  side  farthest 
from  the  spectator  as  he  entered.  In  front  of  this 
table  sat  a  number  of  great  lords  in  a  row,  and  before 
them  in  turn  the  princes  of  the  blood  royal.  In  ad- 
vance of  these  were  six  detached  seats,  places  of 
highest  honour.      Here  sat  young  King  Charles  IX., 

^  Beza  to  Calvin,  September  12,  1561.     Baum,  ii.  (doc),  6l, 
2  Edition  of  Paris,  1733,  tome  v.,  106, 


158  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

with  his  younger  brother  (the  future  Henry  III.), 
and  Antoine,  King  of  Navarre,  on  his  right,  while 
the  seats  to  his  left  were  occupied  by  his  mother, 
Catharine  de'  Medici,  his  sister,  Margaret  of  Valois, 
future  bride  of  Henry  IV.,  and  Jeanne  d'Albret, 
Queen  of  Navarre.  Chairs  had  been  arranged  for 
the  six  French  cardinals  that  were  in  attendance  at 
court,  in  two  rows  facing  one  another  and  somewhat 
nearer  the  door.  On  the  spectator's  right  were 
Cardinals  Armagnac,  Bourbon,  and  Guise;  on  his 
left  Cardinals  Tournon,  Chastillon,  and  Lorraine, 
with  the  High  Chancellor  of  France,  Michel  de 
r  Hospital,  sitting  between  the  last  two.  In  three 
rows  on  benches  advancing  towards  the  spectator's 
left  hand  were  gathered  bishops  and  doctors,  while 
other  dignitaries  of  the  same  grade  occupied  a 
similar  position  on  his  right.  More  toward  the 
centre  of  the  room  were  a  table  and  seats  for  the 
secretaries  of  state. 

No  seats  had  been  provided  for  Beza  and  his 
companions,  the  Protestant  ministers  and  delegates, 
to  occupy  on  their  arrival.  Swiss  guards,  in  their 
picturesque  costume,  and  body-guards  of  the  king 
stood  on  either  side  of  the  entrance;  and  the  lower 
end  of  the  hall  was  crowded  with  men  curious  to 
witness  and  listen  to  the  proceedings. 

Charles  IX.,  being  a  boy  of  eleven  years  of  age, 
opened  the  session  with  the  few  simple  words  which 
he  had  been  instructed  by  his  mother  to  utter,  and 
bade  the  chancellor  to  set  forth  the  object  for  which 
the  conference  had  been  appointed.  Thus  directed, 
Michd  de  r Hospital,  seating  himself  on  a  stool, 


CHARLES  IX. 

FROM    AN    ENGRAVING    IN    THE    PRINT-ROOM,    BRITISH    MUSEUM. 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  159 

"  pretty   far  forward  in   the  hall  toward  the  right 
side,"  made  an  appropriate  address. 

"Both  the  king's  predecessors,"  said  he,  "and  the 
king  himself  have  tried  every  means,  forcible  and  mild, 
to  reunite  his  people  so  unfortunately  divided  by  a 
diversity  of  opinions.  Neither  force  nor  mildness  has 
been  of  much  avail.  Consequently  the  division  long 
since  begun  has  been  succeeded  by  a  capital  enmity  be- 
tween his  Majesty's  subjects,  from  which,  unless  God 
supplies  some  prompt  and  quick  remedy,  only  the  entire 
ruin  of  the  State  is  to  be  apprehended.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that,  following  the  example  of  the  action  of 
former  monarchs  in  similar  straits,  the  king  has  called 
you  together,  that  he  may  communicate  to  you  his  need 
of  counsel  and  help.  Before  all  things  else,  he  begs  you, 
so  far  as  possible,  to  devise  the  means  of  appeasing  God, 
whose  anger  is  certainly  provoked,  and  of  rooting  out 
and  removing  whatever  has  offended  Him.  And  should 
it  be  found  that,  through  the  sloth  and  avarice  of  those 
that  are  in  charge  of  His  service,  there  have  crept  in 
abuses  contrary  to  God's  Word,  contrary  to  the  pre- 
scriptions of  the  Holy  Apostles  and  the  ancient  constitu- 
tions of  the  Church,  his  Majesty  begs  you,  so  far  as  your 
authority  extends,  to  put  forth  your  hands  with  a  resolu- 
tion that  shall  take  away  from  your  enemies  the  occasion 
upon  which  they  have  laid  hold  to  speak  ill  of  you  and 
to  draw  the  people  away  from  your  obedience.  Look 
also  to  all  that  may  reform  both  your  lives  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  your  charges. 

"  Now,  inasmuch  as  the  diversity  of  opinions  is  the 
principal  ground  of  troubles  and  seditions,  the  king, 
following  in  this  the  decisions  of  the  two  meetings  here- 
tofore held,  has  granted  a  safe-conduct  to  the  ministers 


i6o  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

of  the  new  sect,  in  the  hope  that  a  kindly  and  gracious 
conference  with  them  may  be  of  great  advantage.  I 
therefore  beg  this  entire  company  to  receive  them  as  a 
father  receives  his  children,  and  to  take  pains  to  teach 
and  instruct  them.  Then,  should  the  opposite  of  what 
was  hoped  for  come  to  pass,  and  no  means  be  found  to 
bring  them  back  or  to  unite  us  all,  it  will  not,  at  least, 
be  possible  hereafter  to  say,  as  has  been  said  in  the  past, 
that  they  have  been  condemned  without  having  been 
heard.  When  this  dispute  shall  have  been  faithfully  re- 
ported and  published  throughout  the  kingdom,  as  it 
really  was  held,  the  people  will  be  able  to  understand 
that  it  is  for  good,  just,  and  certain  reasons,  and  not  by 
force  or  authority,  that  this  doctrine  has  been  rejected 
and  condemned.  Meantime  his  Majesty  promises  to  be, 
as  all  the  king's  predecessors  have  always  been,  in  every- 
thing and  everywhere,  the  protector  and  defender  of  his 
Church."  ' 

Scarcely  had  the  chancellor  concluded  his  temper- 
ate speech  when  Tournon,  the  oldest  of  the  cardinals 
present,  arose  and  addressed  the  king  before  L* Hos- 
pital could  carry  out  his  purpose  to  summon  the 
Protestants.  In  spite  of  every  rebuff,  the  bigots 
had  not  lost  courage  and  strove  at  the  last  moment 
to  prevent  the  promised  conference  from  taking 
place.  The  cardinal  was  presiding  officer  of  the  as- 
sembled clergy,  both  in  virtue  of  seniority  and  by 
rank.  For  he  was  dean  of  the  college  of  Roman 
cardinals  and  primate  of  France  by  reason  of  his 
archbishopric  of  Lyons,  to  which  the  primacy  was 
attached.      He    thanked    the  king  and  his  mother 

'  La  Place,  Comment,  dc  VEstat  dc  la  Rd.  et  Rep.,  158. 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  16 1 

for  their  presence,  and  briefly  complimented  the 
chancellor  upon  a  speech  which  he  said  was  so 
learned,  so  wise,  and  so  well  constructed  that  it 
could  not  be  surpassed.  He  added  that  he  had 
come  prepared  to  answer  all  the  chief  points  in  the 
letters  of  convocation  sent  to  the  prelates,  but  that 
now  a  number  of  questions  of  prime  importance  had 
just  been  raised,  to  which  he  professed  his  unwill- 
ingness and  his  inability  to  reply  offhand.  He 
must  consult  with  his  colleagues,  and  he  asked  for  a 
written  copy  of  the  chancellor's  propositions.  This 
request  L' Hospital  denied,  saying  that  everybody 
had  had  the  opportunity  to  hear  them.  Tournon 
then  insisted,  on  the  ground  that  he  needed  the 
paper  especially  for  the  benefit  of  such  bishops  as 
had  not  been  present  at  Poissy  and  were  coming  in 
from  day  to  day.  But  L' Hospital  refused  to  accord 
the  dilatory  motion  and  ordered  the  Protestants  to 
present  themselves  and  speak. 

At  the  word,  Theodore  Beza  and  the  delegrates 
who  had  chosen  him  to  be  their  spokesman  were 
brought  into  the  hall  by  the  captain  of  the  king's 
guard,  and  came  forward  until  their  farther  advance 
was  stopped  by  a  rail  barring  their  nearer  approach 
to  the  king  and  to  the  gathered  dignitaries  of  his 
court  and  Church.  Petty  malice  had  planned  the 
arrangement  in  order  to  give  to  the  Protestant 
ministers  the  aspect  of  accused  persons  who  were 
permitted  to  clear  themselves  of  crimes  laid  to  their 
charge,  or  of  culprits  about  to  be  sentenced  to  con- 
dign punishment.  Of  petty  malice,  sooth  to  say, 
this    was    by    no    means    the    only    manifestation. 


i62  Theodore  Beza  [151^ 

"  Here  come  the  Genevese  curs!"  spitefully  ex- 
claimed one  of  the  cardinals,  in  tones  loud  enough 
to  be  heard  distinctly  by  Beza  as  he  entered  in  com- 
pany with  another  minister  from  the  city  of  Calvin. 
To  whom  the  courtly  Reformer  replied  with  un- 
ruffled composure  :  "  Faithful  dogs  are  much  needed 
in  the  Lord's  sheepfold  to  bark  at  the  wolves."  ^ 

Beza,  like  his  companions,  was  simply  dressed  in 
the  long  black  Genevan  gown,  worn  in  public  from 
the  time  of  the  Reformation  to  the  present  day 
by  the  pastors  of  the  Churches  of  France  and  French 
Switzerland.  On  reaching  the  rail  he  stood  for  an 
instant  and  then  addressed  the  young  king  in  these 
words*: 

**  Sire,  inasmuch  as  the  issue  of  all  enterprises,  both 
great  and  small,  depends  upon  the  help  and  favour  of 
our  God,  and  chiefly  when  these  enterprises  concern  the 
interests  of  His  service  and  matters  that  surpass  the 
capacity  of  our  understandings,  we  hope  that  your  Ma- 
jesty will  not  find  it  amiss  or  strange  if  we  begin  by  the 
invocation  of  His  name,  beseeching  Him  after  the  fol- 
lowing manner. ' ' 

A  hush  fell  upon  the  entire  assembly,  as  the 
speaker,  ending  this  exhortation,  knelt  on  the  floor 
and  began  to  repeat  the  beautiful  prayer  of  Calvin's 
liturgy.  His  colleagues  on  his  right  hand  and  on 
his  left  also  knelt.  This  example  was  contagious. 
The  queen-mother  fell  on  her  knees.     The  cardinals 


'  Contemporary  fragment  (Tronchin  MSS.)  in  Baum,  ii.,  238. 
2  Beza's  harangue  at  Poissy  is  given  by  La  Place,  159,  foil.  ;  by  the 
Hist.  Eccl/s.,  i.,  560-577, 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  163 

and  possibly  the  bishops  arose  and  stood  with  un- 
covered heads  while  Beza  reverently  uttered  the 
Huguenot  confession  of  sins  and  supplication  for 
pardon— the  very  words  that  had  been  used  and 
were  still  to  be  used  by  many  a  martyr  suffering  the 
penalty  of  death  for  attending  conventicles  where 
this  prayer  was  customarily  repeated.  His  words 
were: 

"Lord  God!  Almighty  and  everlasting  Father,  we 
acknowledge  and  confess  before  Thy  holy  Majesty  that 
we  are  miserable  sinners,  conceived  and  born  in  guilt 
and  corruption,  prone  to  do  evil,  unfit  for  any  good; 
who,  by  reason  of  our  depravity,  transgress  unceasingly 
Thy  holy  commandments.  Whereby  we  draw  down  upon 
ourselves,  by  Thy  just  judgment,  ruin  and  perdition. 
Nevertheless,  O  Lord,  we  are  sore  displeased  that  we 
have  offended  Thee,  and  we  condemn  ourselves  and  our 
evil  ways,  with  a  true  repentance,  beseeching  Thee  that 
Thy  grace  may  succour  our  distress.  Be  pleased,  there- 
fore, to  have  pity  upon  us,  O  most  gracious  God!  Father 
of  all  mercies!  for  the  sake  of  Thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Lord  and  only  Redeemer.  Blot  out  our  sins  and  our 
pollution,  and  set  us  free,  and  grant  us  the  daily  increase 
of  the  graces  of  Thy  Holy  Spirit ;  to  the  end  that,  acknow- 
ledging from  our  inmost  hearts  our  unrighteousness,  we 
may  be  touched  with  a  sorrow  that  shall  work  in  us  true 
repentance,  and  that  this  may  cause  us  to  die  unto  all 
sin  and  to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  righteousness  and 
purity  that  shall  be  well  pleasing  to  Thee,  through  the 
same  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord  and  only  Saviour. 

"  And,  inasmuch  as  it  doth  please  Thee  this  day  so  far 
to  exhibit  Thy  favour  to  Thy  poor  and  unprofitable  serv- 
ants, as  to  enable  them  freely,  and  in  the  presence  of 


1 64  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  king  whom  Thou  hast  set  over  them,  and  of  the 
most  noble  and  illustrious  company  on  earth,  to  declare 
that  which  Thou  hast  given  them  to  know  of  Thy  holy 
truth,  may  it  please  Thee  to  continue  the  course  of  Thy 
goodness  and  loving-kindness,  O  God  and  Father  of 
lights,  and  so  to  illumine  our  understandings,  guide  our 
affections,  and  form  them  to  all  teachableness,  and  so  to 
order  our  words,  that  in  all  simplicity  and  truth,  after 
having  conceived,  according  to  the  measure  which  it 
shall  please  Thee  to  grant  unto  us,  the  secret  things 
which  Thou  hast  revealed  to  men  for  their  salvation,  we 
may  be  able  with  heart  and  with  mouth  to  set  forth  that 
which  may  conduce  to  the  glory  and  honour  of  Thy  holy 
name,  and  the  prosperity  and  greatness  of  our  king  and 
of  all  those  that  belong  to  him,  with  the  rest  and  comfort 
of  all  Christendom,  and  especially  of  this  kingdom.  O 
Almighty  Lord  and  Father,  we  ask  Thee  all  these  things 
in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ,  Thy  Son 
our  Saviour,  as  He  Himself  hath  taught  us  to  seek  them, 
saying,  *  Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven,'  "  etc. 

The  solemn  confession  of  sins  of  the  Genevan 
liturgy,  and  the  equally  beautiful  prayer  of  Beza's 
own  composition  with  which  he  had  associated  it, 
predisposed  his  hearers  to  listen  to  the  eloquent  and 
forcible  address  to  his  Majesty  that  followed. 

"  Sire,"  he  said,  when  he  had  risen  from  his  knees  and 
again  stood  at  the  bar,  "it  is  a  great  happiness  for  a 
loyal  and  affectionate  subject  to  look  upon  the  face  of 
his  prince,  since  it  represents  to  him,  as  it  were,  the 
visible  majesty  of  God,  and  he  cannot  therefore  but  be 
greatly  moved  by  the  sight  to  consider  the  obedience 
and  submission  that  he  owes  him.     But  if  it  so  happen, 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  165 

that  not  only  is  he  permitted  to  see  his  prince,  but  also 
be  seen  of  him,  and,  what  is  of  more  importance,  heard 
and  finally  received  and  approved,  then  truly  is  his  a 
very  great  and  peculiar  satisfaction. 

"  Of  these  four  advantages,  Sire,  it  has  pleased  God 
in  His  secret  counsels  that  a  part  of  your  very  humble 
and  obedient  subjects  should  for  a  long  time  have  been 
deprived  to  their  very  great  regret;  until  now  in  His 
mercy,  having  heard  our  continual  cries  and  groans.  He 
has  so  favoured  us  as  to  grant  us  a  blessing  rather  desired 
than  hoped  for — the  blessing  of  seeing  your  Majesty, 
Sire,  and,  better  still,  of  being  seen  and  heard  by  you 
in  the  most  noble  and  illustrious  company  on  earth. 
Should  we  therefore  never  receive  any  other  advantage 
now  or  hereafter,  yet  would  the  remainder  of  our  lives 
be  insufficient  duly  to  thank  our  God  and  render  worthy 
praises  to  your  Majesty. 

"  But  when,  together  with  this,  we  consider  that  this 
same  day  not  merely  opens  the  way,  but  invites  us  and, 
after  so  benignant  and  gracious  a  fashion  and  one  so  be- 
coming your  royal  gentleness,  constrains  us  unitedly  to 
testify  to  our  obligation  to  confess  the  name  of  our  God, 
and  to  declare  the  obedience  we  render  you,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  admit.  Sire,  that  our  intelligence  is  incapable 
of  conceiving  the  magnitude  of  such  a  boon,  our  tongues 
still  less  competent  to  express  what  affection  enjoins.  So 
great  a  favour  surpassing  all  human  eloquence,  we  prefer 
to  confess  our  own  impotence  by  a  modest  silence,  rather 
than  belittle  such  a  benefit  by  the  defect  of  our  words." 

Having  thus  given  utterance  in  graceful  periods, 
if  in  an  exaggerated  style  quite  foreign  to  the  taste 
of  our  later  times,  to  those  sentiments  of  submission 
which  the  men  of  the  sixteenth  century  found  none 


1 66  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

too  strong  for  their  unbounded  loyalty,  the  orator 
proceeded  to  point  out  the  single  blessing  which  he 
and  his  friends  still  lacked.  They  had  been  per- 
mitted to  see  their  king,  to  be  seen  by  him,  to 
be  received  by  him  with  kindness.  There  yet  re- 
mained the  fourth  point,  that  their  service  be  ac- 
cepted as  agreeable  by  his  Majesty. 

"  This  also  we  hope  to  obtain,"  said  Beza,  *'  and  God 
grant  that  our  coming  may  put  an  end  not  so  much  to 
our  past  wretchedness  and  calamities,  the  memory  of 
which  is  as  it  were  extinguished  by  this  happy  day,  as  to 
what  has  ever  seemed  to  us  more  grievous  than  death 
itself,  namely,  to  the  troubles  and  disorders  that  have 
come  upon  this  kingdom  by  reason  of  religion,  with  the 
ruin  of  a  great  number  of  your  poor  subjects.  Now 
several  things  have  hitherto  prevented  us  from  enjoying 
so  great  a  benefit,  and  these  would  still  cause  us  to  de- 
spair, were  it  not  that,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  a 
number  of  things  that  tend  to  strengthen  and  assure  us. 

"There  is,  in  the  first  place,  a  persuasion  rooted  in 
the  hearts  of  many  persons  by  a  certain  misfortune  and 
perverseness  of  the  times,  that  we  are  turbulent  and  am- 
bitious men,  obstinate  in  our  opinions,  enemies  of  all 
concord  and  tranquillity.  It  may  also  be  that  there  are 
other  people  whose  notion  of  us  is,  that,  although  we  are 
not  altogether  enemies  of  peace,  yet  we  demand  it  under 
conditions  so  rough  and  harsh  as  to  be  in  nowise  admis- 
sible; as  if  we  were  undertaking  to  turn  the  whole  world 
upside  down,  in  order  to  create  another  after  our  own 
fashion,  and  even  to  despoil  some  of  their  property  in 
order  to  possess  ourselves  of  it.  There  are  several  other 
hindrances  of  like  magnitude  or  even  greater.  Sire;  but 
we  much  prefer  that  their  memory  be  buried  rather  than 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  167 

that  we  should  reopen  ancient  sores  by  rehearsing  them 
now  that  we  are  on  the  point,  not  of  making  lamentations 
and  complaints,  but  of  seeking  the  most  prompt  and 
suitable  remedies. 

"  And  what  then  gives  us  such  assurance  in  the  midst 
of  so  many  hindrances  ?  Sire,  it  is  no  reliance  upon 
anything  in  us,  seeing  that  we  are,  in  every  way,  of  the 
smallest  and  most  contemptible  in  the  world.  Neither 
is  it,  thank  God!  a  vain  presumption  or  arrogance,  for 
our  vesture  and  lowly  condition  do  not  comport  there- 
with. It  is  rather.  Sire,  our  good  conscience,  which 
assures  us  of  the  excellence  and  justice  of  our  cause,  of 
which,  therefore,  we  hope  that  our  God,  by  means  of 
your  Majesty,  will  be  the  defender  and  protector.  It  is 
also  the  gentleness  already  to  be  recognised  in  your  face, 
your  speech,  and  your  countenance.  It  is  the  equity 
which  we  see  and  have  learned  by  experience  to  be  im- 
pressed upon  your  heart.  Madam," — here  he  turned  to 
Catharine  de'  Medici.  "It  is  the  uprightness  of  you. 
Sire,  and  the  illustrious  Princes  of  the  Blood," — this 
he  said,  bowing  to  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  Prince  of 
Conde,  and  those  that  sat  with  them.  "It  is  also  the 
evident  grounds  we  have  to  cherish  the  hope  that  you, 
our  highly  honoured  lords  of  the  Council,  conforming 
yourselves  to  one  and  the  same  resolution,  will  not  be 
less  inclined  to  grant  us  so  holy  and  necessary  a  concord 
than  we  are  to  receive  it.  And  what  more  shall  we  say  ? 
There  is  still  another  consideration  that  encourages  us. 
It  is  that  we  presume,  according  to  the  rule  of  charity, 
that  you,  gentlemen,  with  whom  we  are  to  confer  " — and 
here  he  turned  to  the  cardinals  and  bishops  on  his  right 
and  on  his  left — "will  exert  yourselves  in  conjunction 
with  us,  according  to  our  small  measure,  rather  to  clear 
lip  th^  trutl:^  than  to  gbscure  it;  to  instruct  rather  thau 


1 68  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

to  debate;  to  weigh  arguments  rather  than  to  gainsay; 
in  short,  to  prevent  the  malady  from  making  farther 
progress  rather  than  to  render  it  altogether  incurable  and 
fatal.  Such,  gentlemen,  is  the  opinion  we  have  con- 
ceived of  you,  and  we  pray  you,  in  the  name  of  that 
great  God  who  has  gathered  us  here  and  who  will  be  the 
Judge  of  our  thoughts  and  of  our  words,  that  notwith- 
standing everything  that  has  been  said,  written,  or  done 
during  the  space  of  forty  years  or  thereabouts,  you  will 
with  us  lay  aside  all  the  passions  and  prejudices  that 
might  hinder  the  fruits  of  so  holy  and  praiseworthy  an 
undertaking,  and  that  you  will  expect  of  us,  if  you  please, 
what,  with  the  help  of  God's  grace,  you  will  find  in  us, 
namely,  a  mind  tractable  and  ready  to  receive  everything 
that  shall  be  proved  by  the  pure  Word  of  God. 

"  Do  not  think  that  we  are  come  to  maintain  any 
error,  but  to  discover  and  correct  every  defect  that  shall 
be  found,  either  on  your  side  or  on  ours.  Do  not  re- 
gard us  as  possessed  of  such  overweening  conceit  as  to 
undertake  to  ruin  the  Church  of  our  God  which  we  know 
to  be  eternal.  Do  not  imagine  that  we  are  seeking 
the  means  of  making  you  like  unto  ourselves  in  our  poor 
and  humble  condition,  wherein  nevertheless,  thank  God, 
we  find  singular  contentment.  Our  desire  is  that  the 
ruins  of  Jerusalem  may  be  rebuilt;  that  this  spiritual 
temple  may  rise  again;  that  the  house  of  God  built  of 
living  stones  may  be  restored  in  its  integrity;  that  the 
flocks  so  scattered  and  dispersed  by  a  just  vengeance  of 
God  and  by  the  carelessness  of  men,  may  be  rallied  and 
gathered  again  in  the  sheepfold  of  the  supreme  and  only 
Shepherd. 

"  Such  is  our  purpose,  such  all  our  desire  and  our  in- 
tention, gentlemen.  If  you  have  not  believed  it  hereto- 
fore, we  hope  that  you  will  believe  it  when  we  shall  have 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  169 

conferred,  in  all  patience  and  mildness,  respecting  what 
God  has  given  us.  Would  to  God  that,  without  going 
farther,  instead  of  entering  upon  opposing  arguments, 
we  might  all  raise  a  hymn  to  the  Lord  and  join  hands 
with  one  another,  as  has  sometimes  happened  between 
the  armies  even  of  unbelievers^  and  infidels  drawn  up  in 
battle  array.  It  were  a  great  shame  for  us  if  we  profess 
to  preach  the  doctrine  of  peace  and  good  will  and  mean- 
time are  the  most  easily  estranged  and  the  most  difficult 
to  reconcile.  What  then  ?  These  things  men  can  and 
ought  to  desire;  but  it  belongs  to  God  to  grant  them,  as 
also  He  will  do  when  it  shall  please  Him  to  cover  our 
sins  by  His  goodness  and  dissipate  our  darkness  by  His 
light. 

"  And  while  on  this  topic,  Sire,  in  order  that  it  may 
be  understood  that  we  intend  to  proceed  with  a  good 
conscience,  simply,  clearly,  and  frankly,  we  shall  de- 
clare, if  it  please  your  Majesty  to  grant  us  permission, 
what  in  sum  are  the  principal  points  of  this  conference; 
yet  in  such  a  manner  that,  with  God's  help,  no  one  shall 
have  any  just  occasion  of  offence.  There  are  some  who 
think  and  would  gladly  persuade  others  that  we  differ 
only  respecting  things  of  slight  consequence,  or  respect- 
ing matters  that  are  indifferent  rather  than  essential 
points  in  our  faith.  There  are  others  who,  quite  on  the 
contrary,  through  lack  of  being  well  informed  respecting 
our  belief,  suppose  that  we  are  agreed  as  to  nothing 
whatever,  any  more  than  Jews  or  Mohammedans.  The 
intention  of  the  former  is  as  praiseworthy  as  the  opinion 
of  the  latter  is  to  be  rejected.  This  will,  we  hope,  ap- 
pear in  the  sequel.  But  certainly  neither  those  who  hold 
the  one  nor  those  that  hold  the  other  view  open  the  way 
to  a  true  and  solid  agreement.  For  if  the  latter  are  to 
be  believed,  the  one  of  the  two  parties  can  exist  only  by 


I70  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

ruining  the  other,  a  thing  too  inhuman  to  be  thought  of 
and  most  horrible  in  the  execution.  If  again  the  opinion 
of  the  former  is  to  be  received,  it  will  be  necessary 
that  many  matters  remain  undecided.  From  this  there 
will  result  discord  more  dangerous  and  damaging  than 
ever. 

"  Thus,  then,  we  admit  (and  we  can  scarcely  make  the 
admission  without  tears)  that  just  as  we  agree  respecting 
some  of  the  principal  points  of  our  Christian  faith,  so 
also  we  disagree  as  to  a  part  of  them.  We  confess  that 
there  is  one  only  God,  in  one  and  the  same  infinite  and 
incomprehensible  essence,  distinct  in  three  persons,  con- 
substantial  and  equal  in  everything  and  everywhere,  that 
is  to  say:  the  Father  unbegotten,  the  Son  eternally  be- 
gotten of  the  Father,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeding 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son.  We  acknowledge  one 
only  Jesus  Christ,  true  God  and  true  man,  without  con- 
fusion or  separation  of  the  two  natures  or  of  the  proper- 
ties of  the  same.  We  acknowledge  that  in  so  far  as  He 
is  man,  He  is  not  the  son  of  Joseph,  but  was  conceived 
by  the  secret  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  womb  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  virgin,  I  say,  both  before  and 
after  His  birth.  We  acknowledge  His  nativity,  His  life. 
His  death,  His  burial.  His  descent  into  hell.  His  resur- 
rection, and  His  ascension,  as  they  are  contained  in  the 
Holy  Gospel.  We  believe  that  He  is  on  high  in  the  skies, 
seated  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  where  he  will  remain 
until  He  comes  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead.  We 
believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  enlightens,  comforts,  and 
sustains  us.  We  believe  that  there  is  a  holy  Catholic, 
that  is,  universal  Church,  which  is  the  assembly  and 
communion  of  saints,  outside  of  which  there  is  no  salva- 
tion. We  are  assured  of  the  free  remission  of  our  sins 
through  the  blood  of  Jesu§  Christ,  \n  virtue  of  which, 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  171 

after  that  these  same  bodies  being  raised  again  shall  have 
been  reunited  to  our  souls,  we  shall  enjoy  blessed  and 
eternal  life  with  God. 

"  *  How  then  ?  '  someone  will  say.  *  Are  not  these 
the  articles  of  our  faith  ?  Wherein  then  are  we  discord- 
ant ?  '  First,  in  the  interpretation  of  a  part  of  them; 
secondly,  in  that  it  seems  to  us  (and,  if  we  are  mistaken 
in  this  particular,  we  shall  be  very  glad  to  know  it),  that 
men  have  not  been  satisfied  with  the  aforesaid  articles, 
but  for  a  long  time  have  not  ceased  adding  articles  to 
articles;  as  if  the  Christian  religion  were  a  structure  that 
is  never  completed.  Moreover,  we  say  that  what  has  been 
newly  built,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  learn,  has  not  always 
been  built  upon  the  old  foundations.  Consequently  it 
rather  disfigures  the  structure  than  serves  to  deck  it  out 
and  adorn  it.  Nevertheless  more  attention  has  often 
been  given  to  these  accessories  than  to  what  is  essential. 
But  to  the  end  that  our  intention  may  be  still  better 
understood,  we  shall  bring  out  these  points  in  detail. 

"We  assert,  therefore,  and  we  hope  to  establish  our 
assertion  in  all  sobriety  by  the  testimony  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  that  the  true  God,  in  whom  we  are  to  believe, 
is  robbed  of  His  perfect  righteousness,  if  we  undertake 
to  set  up,  in  opposition  to  His  anger  and  just  judgment 
any  other  satisfaction  or  cleansing,  in  this  world  or  in  the 
next,  than  that  entire  and  complete  obedience  which 
can  be  found  in  no  other  than  in  one  only  Jesus  Christ. 
And,  in  like  manner,  if  we  say  that  He  frees  us  from  only 
one  part  of  our  debts,  inasmuch  as  we  pay  the  other,  He 
is  despoiled  of  His  perfect  mercy.  Hence  it  follows,  so 
far  as  we  can  judge,  that  when  we  would  learn  on  what 
ground  we  obtain  paradise  we  must  take  our  stand  upon 
the  death  and  passion  of  one  only  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Saviour  and  Redeemer,  or  else,  instead  of  the  true  God, 


i;^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

we  should  adore  a  strange  God,  who  would  be  neither 
perfectly  just  nor  perfectly  merciful. 

"  From  this  also  depends  another  point  of  very  great 
importance  touching  the  office  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  if 
He  alone  is  not  entirely  our  salvation,  that  so  precious 
name  of  Jesus,  that  is  to  say.  Saviour,  announced  by  the 
angel  Gabriel,  would  not  be  His  proper  name.  In  like 
manner,  if  He  is  not  our  only  prophet,  having  fully  made 
known  to  us  the  will  of  God  His  father  for  our  salvation, 
first,  by  the  mouth  of  the  prophets,  afterwards  in  person 
in  the  fulness  of  times,  and  later  by  His  faithful  apostles; 
if  He  is  not  also  the  sole  head  and  spiritual  king  of  our 
consciences;  if  He  is  not  also  our  only  eternal  priest, 
after  the  order  of  Melchisedec,  having,  by  one  offering 
of  Himself,  made  once  and  never  repeated,  reconciled 
men  to  God,  and  become  now  sole  intercessor  for  us  in 
heaven  until  the  end  of  the  world;  in  short,  if  we  are  not 
altogether  complete  in  Him  alone,  then  the  name  and 
title  of  Messiah  or  Christ,  that  is  to  say,  anointed  of  God 
and  devoted  to  this  end,  will  not  belong  to  Him. 

"  If,  therefore,  men  will  not  be  satisfied  with  Christ's 
own  word  alone,  faithfully  preached  and  subsequently 
reduced  to  writing  by  the  prophets  and  apostles,  Christ 
is  dispossessed  of  His  office  of  prophet.  He  is  also  de- 
graded from  His  position  as  head  and  spiritual  king  of 
His  Church,  if  new  laws  are  made  for  men's  consciences, 
and  from  His  place  as  priest  forever,  by  those  who 
undertake  to  offer  Him  up  anew  for  the  remission  of  sins 
and  who  are  not  satisfied  to  have  Him  as  sole  advocate 
and  intercessor  in  heaven  between  God  and  men. 

"  In  the  third  place,  we  are  not  agreed  either  as  to  the 
definition,  or  as  to  the  origin,  or  as  to  the  effects  of  the 
faith  which,  following  Saint  Paul,  we  call  '  justifying 
faith,'  and  through  which  alone  we  believe  that  Jesus 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  i73 

Christ  with  all  His  benefits  is  applied  to  us.  As  to  good 
works,  if  there  are  some  persons  who  regard  us  as  de- 
spising them,  they  are  very  ill  informed;  for  we  do  not 
separate  faith  from  charity  any  more  than  we  can  sepa- 
rate light  and  heat.  And  we  saywith  Saint  John,  in  his 
first  epistle,  that  whoever  says  that  he  knows  God  and 
does  not  keep  His  commandments  makes  himself  a  liar 
by  his  own  conscience  and  in  his  entire  life.  However, 
we  frankly  confess  that  we  disagree  in  this  matter  on 
three  principal  points.  The  first  is  touching  the  origin 
and  first  source  from  which  good  works  proceed;  the 
second,  what  they  are;  the  third,  for  what  they  are  good. 
As  to  the  first,  we  find  no  other  free  will  in  man  save  that 
which  is  made  free  by  the  sole  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ;  and  we  say  that  our  nature,  in  the  state  into 
which  it  is  fallen,  needs  before  all  things  to  be,  not 
helped  and  sustained,  but  rather  slain  and  mortified  by 
the  power  of  God's  Spirit,  inasmuch  as  grace  finds  it  not 
only  wounded  and  weakened,  but  altogether  destitute 
of  strength  and  opposed  to  everything  that  is  good,  yes, 
even  dead  and  decayed  in  sin  and  corruption.  And  we 
render  this  honour  to  God,  that  we  do  not  claim  to  share 
in  this  matter  with  Him.  For  we  ascribe  the  beginning, 
and  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  our  good  works  to  His 
sole  grace  and  mercy  working  in  us.  As  to  the  second 
point,  we  accept  no  other  rule  of  righteousness  and 
obedience  before  God  than  His  commandments,  as  they 
are  written  and  recorded  in  His  Holy  Word.  To  these 
commandments  we  do  not  regard  it  lawful  for  any  creat- 
ure to  add,  nor  to  subtract  from  them,  so  as  to  bind  the 
conscience.  Respecting  the  third  point,  namely,  for 
what  purpose  they  are  good,  we  confess  that  so  far  as 
they  proceed  from  the  Spirit  of  God  working  in  us,  since 
they    proceed    from    so    good    a  source,  they    ought    to 


174  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

be  called  good,  although  if  God  were  to  examine  them 
strictly,  He  would  find  only  too  much  to  find  fault  with. 
"  We  say  also  that  they  are  good  for  another  purpose, 
inasmuch  as  by  them  our  God  is  glorified,  men  are  drawn 
to  the  knowledge  of  Him,  and  we  are  assured  that,  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwelling  in  us  (a  fact  which  is  known  by 
its  fruits),  we  are  of  the  number  of  His  elect  and  prede- 
stinated to  salvation.  But  when  we  seek  to  discover  on 
what  grounds  we  have  eternal  life,  we  say  with  Saint 
Paul  that  it  is  a  free  gift  of  God,  and  not  a  reward  due 
to  our  merits.  For  Jesus  Christ,  in  this  respect,  justifies 
us  by  His  sole  righteousness,  which  is  imputed  to  us, 
sanctifies  us  by  His  holiness,  which  is  imparted  to  us,  and 
has  redeemed  us  by  His  one  sacrifice  of  Himself,  which  is 
granted  to  us,  through  a  true  and  living  faith,  by  the 
mere  grace  and  free  gift  of  our  God.  All  these  treasures 
are  communicated  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
making  use  to  this  end  of  the  preaching  of  God's  Word 
and  the  administration  of  His  Holy  Sacraments.  Not 
that  these  are  necessary,  seeing  that  He  is  Almighty 
God,  but  forasmuch  as  it  pleases  Him  to  make  use  of 
these  ordinary  means  to  create  and  nurture  in  us  that 
precious  gift  of  faith  which  is  as  it  were  the  only  hand 
to  lay  hold  on,  and  as  it  were  the  only  vessel  to  receive 
Jesus  Christ  for  salvation  with  all  His  treasures." 

From  this  exposition  of  the  Protestant  view  of 
good  works  the  speaker  naturally  proceeded  to  con- 
sider the  Word  of  God  and  the  Sacraments  to  which 
he  had  just  referred. 

"  We  receive  as  the  Word  of  God  only  the  teachings 
recorded  in  the  books  of  the  prophets  and  apostles, 
called  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.     For  by  whom 


1560  Colloquy  of  Poissy  i75 

shall  we  be  certified  of  our  salvation  if  not  by  those  who 
are  witnesses  above  reproach  ?  As  to  the  writings  of  the 
ancient  Doctors  and  the  Councils,  before  receiving  them 
without  dispute,  we  should  have  first  to  make  them  accord 
altogether  with  the  Scriptures,  and  next  among  them- 
selves; seeing  that  the  Spirit  of  God  never  contradicts 
Himself.  This,  gentlemen,  we  think  you  will  never 
undertake  to  do.  Should  you  undertake  to  do  it,  you 
will  please  pardon  us  if  we  say  that  we  shall  never  believe 
it  possible  until  we  see  it  actually  accomplished.  What 
then  ?  Are  we  of  the  race  of  that  wretched  Ham,  son 
of  Noah,  who  uncovered  his  father's  nakedness  ?  Do 
we  esteem  ourselves  more  learned  than  so  many  ancient 
Greek  and  Latin  Fathers  ?  Are  we  so  conceited  as  to 
think  that  we  are  the  first  that  have  discovered  the  truth 
and  to  condemn  for  ignorance  the  whole  world  ?  God 
forbid,  gentlemen,  that  we  should  be  such.  But  me- 
thinks  you  will  allow  that  there  have  been  Councils  and 
Councils,  Doctors  and  Doctors,  seeing  that  it  is  not  in  our 
days  alone  that  there  have  been  false  prophets  in  the 
Church  of  God,  as  the  apostles  warn  us  in  a  number  of 
places  and,  particularly,  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  first 
epistle  to  Timothy,  and  in  the  twentieth  chapter  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  In  the  second  place,  as  to  the 
Councils  and  Doctors  that  are  received,  since  all  the  truth 
that  can  be  found  in  them  must  necessarily  have  been 
drawn  from  the  Scriptures,  what  more  certain  means 
shall  we  find  of  deriving  benefit  from  their  intelligence 
than  by  testing  everything  by  that  touchstone,  and  con- 
sidering the  testimony  and  the  reasons  given  by  the 
Scriptures,  on  which  they  will  be  found  to  have  based 
their  interpretation  ?  " 

The  conclusion  drawn  by  Beza  is: 


1 7^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

"  We  therefore  receive  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  a  com- 
plete declaration  of  everything  needful  for  our  salvation. 
As  to  what  may  be  found  in  Councils  or  in  the  books  of 
the  Doctors,  we  cannot  and  ought  not  to  prevent  you, 
or  ourselves,  from  deriving  help  from  them,  provided  it 
be  founded  on  the  express  testimony  of  Scripture.  But, 
for  the  honour  of  God,  do  not  bring  up  to  us  their  bare 
authority,  without  trying  everything  by  this  touchstone. 
For  we  say  with  Saint  Augustine  (in  the  second  book  of 
Christian  Doctrine,  chapter  sixth) :  '  If  there  be  any 
difficulty  in  the  interpretation  of  a  passage,  the  Holy 
Ghost  hath  so  tempered  the  Holy  Scriptures,  that  what 
is  obscurely  stated  in  one  place,  is  very  clearly  stated 
elsewhere.'  I  have  spoken  at  some  length  on  this  point, 
in  order  that  everyone  may  understand  that  we  are  not 
enemies  either  of  the  Councils  or  of  the  old  Fathers,  by 
whom  God  has  been  pleased  to  instruct  His  Church." 

Beza  had  reserved  to  the  last  the  consideration  of 
two  subjects — the  Sacraments  and  the  government 
of  the  Church.  He  excused  himself  on  the  ground 
of  lack  of  time  from  the  fuller  treatment  of  the 
former  which  its  importance  would  justify,  and 
confined  himself  to  a  summary  statement  of  the 
belief  of  the  Protestant  Churches. 

"  We  are  in  agreement  [with  the  Roman  Catholics]  as 
we  think,"  said  he,  "  in  the  description  of  this  word 
*  sacrament,'  namely,  that  the  sacraments  are  visible 
signs  by  means  of  which  our  union  with  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  not  simply  signified  or  represented  to  us,  but 
also  is  truly  offered  on  the  Lord's  side,  and  consequently 
ratified,  sealed,  and  as  it  were  engraven  by  the  virtue  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  upon  those  who  by  a  true  faith  appre- 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  177 

hend  Him  who  is  thus  signified  and  presented  to  them. 
I  use  this  word  '  signified,'  gentlemen,  not  to  enervate  or 
annihilate  the  sacraments,  but  to  distinguish  the  sign 
from  tlie  thing  it  signifies  in  all  virtue  and  efficacy. 
Consequently,  we  grant  that  in  the  sacraments  there 
must  of  necessity  intervene  a  heavenly  and  supernatural 
mutation.  For  we  do  not  assert  that  the  water  of  the 
Holy  Baptism  is  simply  water,  but  that  it  is  a  true  sacra- 
ment of  our  regeneration  and  of  the  cleansing  of  our 
souls  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  like  manner,  we 
do  not  assert  that  in  the  Holy  Supper  of  our  Lord  the 
bread  is  simply  bread,  but  the  sacrament  of  the  precious 
body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which  was  given  for  us; 
nor  that  the  wine  is  simply  wine,  but  the  sacrament  of 
the  precious  blood  that  was  shed  for  us.  However,  we 
do  not  say  that  this  change  is  effected  in  the  substance 
of  the  signs,  but  in  the  use  and  the  end  for  which  they 
are  ordained.  Nor  again  do  we  say  that  it  is  effected  by 
virtue  of  certain  words  pronounced,  nor  by  the  intention 
of  him  who  pronounces  them;  but  by  the  sole  power  and 
will  of  Him  who  has  ordained  this  action  so  divine  and 
heavenly,  of  which  therefore  the  institution  ought  to  be 
repeated  aloud  and  clearly,  in  a  tongue  that  is  under- 
stood, and  distinctly  set  forth,  in  order  that  it  may  be 
understood  and  received  by  all  that  are  present.  So 
much  for  the  external  signs.  Let  us  come  to  what  is 
testified  and  exhibited  by  the  Lord  through  these  signs. 

"  We  do  not  say,  what  some,  in  consequence  of  having 
failed  to  understand  us  well,  have  thought  that  we  teach ; 
namely,  that  in  the  Holy  Supper  there  is  a  simple  com- 
memoration of  the  death  of  our  Lord  Jesus.  Therefore 
we  do  not  say  that  in  it  we  are  made  partakers  merely  of 
the  fruit  of  His  death  and  passion;  but  we  join  the  in- 
heritance with  the  fruits  proceeding  therefrom,   saying 


178  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

with  Saint  Paul  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians, 
that  the  bread  which  we  break  according  to  His  institu- 
tion is  the  communion  of  the  true  body  of  Jesus  Christ 
which  was  given  for  us,  and  that  the  cup  of  which  we 
drink  is  the  communion  of  the  true  blood  which  was  shed 
for  us;  even  in  that  same  substance  which  He  assumed  in 
the  womb  of  the  Virgin  and  which  He  took  from  among 
us  to  heaven.  And  I  pray  you,  gentlemen,  in  God's 
name,  what  can  you  therefore  seek  or  find  in  this  holy 
sacrament  which  we  also  do  not  seek  and  find  there  ?  " 

The  statement  was  certainly  far  removed  from  the 
view  of  the  Reformer  Zwingli  and  of  the  Sacrament- 
arians  so  called.  But  Beza  did  not  hide  from  himself 
the  fact  that  it  would  satisfy  neither  the  Roman 
Catholics  nor  the  Lutherans. 

**  I  understand  very  well  that  a  reply  is  quite  ready  on 
this  point.  The  one  party  will  ask  us  to  acknowledge 
that  the  bread  and  wine  are  transmuted,  I  do  not  say 
into  sacraments  of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  (for  this  we  have  already  admitted),  but 
into  the  very  body  and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  other 
party,  perhaps,  will  not  press  us  so  far  as  this,  but  will 
require  us  to  grant  that  the  body  and  blood  are  really 
and  corporeally  either  in,  or  with,  or  under  the  bread. 
But  on  this  matter,  gentlemen,  for  the  honour  of  God, 
hear  us  patiently  without  being  scandalised,  and  put  off 
for  a  time  all  the  opinion  you  have  conceived  of  us. 
When  either  one  of  these  opinions  shall  have  been  proved 
to  us  by  Holy  Scripture,  we  are  ready  to  embrace  it  and 
to  hold  it  until  death.  But  it  seems  to  us,  according  to 
the  small  measure  of  knowledge  that  we  have  received  of 
God,  that  this  transubstantiation  is  inconsistent  with  the 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  1 79 

analogy  and  propriety  of  our  faith,  insomuch  as  it  is 
directly  contrary  to  the  nature  of  the  sacraments,  in 
which  the  substantial  signs  must  of  necessity  continue  to 
be  true  signs  of  the  substance  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ;  and  it  likewise  overthrows  the  truth  of  His 
human  nature  and  His  ascension.  I  say  the  like  of  the 
second  opinion,  that  of  consubstantiation,  which,  in 
addition  to  all  that  has  been  said,  has  no  foundation  in 
the  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  in  nowise  necessary  to 
our  being  partakers  of  the  fruit  of  the  sacraments. 

*'  If  hereupon  someone  asks  us  whether  we  make  Jesus 
Christ  to  be  absent  from  His  Holy  Supper,  we  reply  that 
we  do  not.  But  if  we  look  to  the  distance  of  the  places 
(as  we  must  when  the  question  respects  His  corporeal 
presence  and  His  humanity  distinctively  considered),  we 
say  that  His  body  is  as  far  removed  from  the  bread  and 
wine  as  the  highest  heaven  is  removed  from  the  earth,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  we  are 
on  the  earth  and  the  sacraments  also,  and  that  as  to  Him, 
His  flesh  is  in  heaven,  glorified  in  such  wise  that,  as  says 
Saint  Augustine,  glory  has  not  taken  away  from  Him  the 
nature  of  a  true  body,  but  its  infirmity.  If  then  anyone 
would  conclude  from  this  that  we  make  Jesus  Christ  ab- 
sent from  His  Holy  Supper,  we  answer  that  this  is  an 
erroneous  conclusion;  for  we  render  this  honour  to 
God,  that  we  believe,  according  to  His  Word,  that, 
although  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  is  now  in  heaven  and 
not  elsewhere,  and  we  are  on  the  earth  and  not  else- 
where, we  are  nevertheless  made  partakers  of  His  body 
and  blood  in  a  spiritual  manner  and  by  means  of  faith, 
as  veritably  as  we  see  the  sacraments  with  the  eye,  touch 
them  with  the  hand,  put  them  into  our  mouth,  and  live 
of  their  substance  in  this  bodily  life. 

"  This,  gentlemen,  is  in  sum  our  faith  on  this  point. 


i8o  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

As  it  seems  to  us  (and  if  we  are  mistaken  we  shall  be 
very  glad  to  be  informed)  it  does  no  violence  to  the 
words  of  Jesus  Christ  or  of  Saint  Paul.  It  does  not  de- 
stroy the  human  nature  of  Jesus  Christ,  nor  the  article 
of  His  ascension,  nor  the  institution  of  the  sacraments. 
It  does  not  open  the  door  to  any  curious  and  inexplicable 
questions  and  distinctions.  It  does  not  at  all  detract 
from  our  union  with  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  the  chief  end 
for  which  the  sacraments  were  instituted,  and  not  to  be 
either  adored,  or  kept,  or  carried,  or  offered  to  God. 
And  lastly,  if  we  are  not  deceived,  it  does  much  more 
honour  to  the  power  and  to  the  word  of  the  Son  of  God 
than  if  we  imagine  that  His  body  must  be  really  joined  to 
the  signs  in  order  that  we  should  become  partakers  of 
them. 

"We  do  not  touch  on  what  remains  concerning  the 
administration  of  Holy  Baptism;  for  we  believe  that  no 
one  of  you,  gentlemen,  would  place  us  in  the  ranks  of 
the  anabaptists,  who  have  no  stouter  enemies  than  we 
are.  And  as  to  some  other  particular  questions  on  this 
score,  we  hope,  with  God's  help,  that,  the  chief  points 
being  settled  in  this  mild  and  friendly  conference,  the 
rest  will  be  concluded  of  itself. 

"As  to  the  other  five  so-called  sacraments,  true  it  is 
that  we  cannot  give  them  this  name  until  we  have  been 
better  instructed  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Meanwhile, 
however,  we  think  that  we  have  re-established  true  con- 
firmation^ which  consists  in  catechising  and  instructing 
those  that  have  been  baptised  in  infancy,  and  in  general 
all  persons  before  admitting  them  to  the  Lord's  Supper. 
We  teach  true  penitence  also,  which  consists  in  a  true 
acknowledgment  of  one's  faults  and  satisfaction  to  the 
offended  parties,  be  it  public  or  private,  in  the  absolu- 
tion which  we  have  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  iSi 

amendment  of  life.  We  approve  of  marriage,  following 
the  injunction  of  Saint  Paul,  in  the  case  of  all  those  who 
have  not  the  gift  of  continence,  and  consequently  do  not 
think  it  lawful  to  bind  anyone  thereto  by  a  vow  or  per- 
petual profession,  and  we  condemn  all  wantonness  and 
lust  in  word,  gesture,  or  act.  We  receive  the  degrees  of 
ecclesiastical  charges  according  as  God  has  ordained 
them  in  His  house  by  His  Holy  Word.  We  approve  of 
the  visitation  of  the  sick  as  a  principal  part  of  the  sacred 
ministry  of  the  Gospel.  We  teach  with  Saint  Paul  to 
judge  no  man  in  a  distinction  of  days  and  meats,  know- 
ing that  the  kingdom  of  God  does  not  consist  in  such 
corruptible  things.  Meanwhile,  however,  we  condemn 
all  dissoluteness,  exhorting  men  continually  to  all  so- 
briety, to  the  mortification  of  the  flesh  according  to  every 
man's  need,  and  to  assiduous  prayer. 

"There  still  remains  the  last  point— concerning  the 
external  order  and  government  of  the  Church.  Respect- 
ing this,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  we  may  be  permitted, 
gentlemen,  to  say,  with  your  consent,  that  everything 
therein  is  so  perverted,  that  everything  is  in  such  con- 
fusion and  ruin,  that,  whether  one  consider  the  order  as 
now  established,  or  have  a  regard  to  life  and  manners, 
scarcely  can  the  best  architects  in  the  world  recognise 
the  marks  and  vestiges  of  that  ancient  edifice  so  well  ad- 
justed by  the  apostles  with  compass  and  rule.  Of  this 
you  yourselves  are  good  witnesses,  as  you  have  busied 
yourselves  about  it  of  late.  In  short,  we  shall  pass  over 
these  matters,  which  are  sufficiently  well  understood, 
and  which  it  were  better  to  cover  in  silence  than  to  utter. 

"  To  conclude,  we  declare  before  God  and  His  angels, 
before  your  Majesty,  Sire,  and  all  the  illustrious  company 
that  is  about  you,  that  our  only  purpose  and  desire  is 
that  the  form  of  the  Church  may  be  brought  back  to  the 


i82  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

simple  purity  and  beauty  which  it  had  in  the  times  of  the 
apostles  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and,  as  to  those 
things  that  have  since  been  added,  that  such  as  shall  be 
found  superstitious,  or  manifestly  contrary  to  the  Word 
of  God,  may  be  altogether  abolished;  that  those  which 
are  superfluous  may  be  cut  off,  that  those  which  experi- 
ence has  taught  us  lead  to  superstition  may  be  removed. 
If  there  be  found  others  useful  and  proper  for  edifica- 
tion, after  a  mature  consideration  of  the  ancient  canons 
and  authorities  of  the  Fathers,  let  them  be  retained  and 
observed  in  God's  name,  according  to  what  may  be  suited 
to  the  times,  places,  and  persons,  to  the  end  that  with 
one  accord  God  shall  be  worshipped  in  spirit  and  in 
truth,  under  your  obedience  and  protection.  Sire,  and 
the  protection  of  the  persons  established  by  God  under 
your  Majesty  for  the  government  of  this  realm.  For  if 
there  be  any  that  still  think  that  the  doctrines  which  we 
profess  turn  men  away  from  the  subjection  which  they 
owe  to  their  kings  and  superiors,  we  have.  Sire,  where- 
with to  answer  them  with  a  good  conscience. 

"It  is  true  that  we  teach  that  our  first  and  principal 
obedience  is  due  to  our  God,  who  is  the  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords.  But  if  our  writings  do  not  suffice  to  clear 
us  from  such  a  crime  laid  to  our  charge  [as  disloyalty  to 
our  sovereign],  we  shall  bring  up.  Sire,  the  example  of 
very  many  lordships  and  principalities,  and  even  king- 
doms, which  have  been  reformed  according  to  this  same 
doctrine.  These  will  suffice  us  as  good  and  sufficient 
testimony  for  our  acquittal.  In  short,  we  take  our  stand 
respecting  this  matter  on  what  Saint  Paul  says  in  the 
thirteenth  chapter  of  Romans,  where,  speaking  of  tem- 
poral government,  he  expressly  enjoins  that  every  soul  be 
subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  '  Nay,'  Saint  John 
Chrysostom  says  on  this  passage:    '  even  were  you  an 


I56I] 


Colloquy  of  Poissy  183 


apostle  or  an  evangelist,  for  that  such  subjection  does 
not  derogate  from  the  service  of  God.'  But  if  it  has 
happened,  or  if  it  should  hereafter  happen,  that  some, 
covering  themselves  with  the  mantle  of  our  doctrine, 
should  be  found  guilty  of  rebellion  against  the  least  of 
your  officers.  Sire,  we  protest  before  God  and  your  Ma- 
jesty, that  they  are  not  of  us,  and  that  they  could  not 
have  more  bitter  enemies  than  we  are,  according  as  our 
poor  condition  permits. 

"  In  fine,  Sire,  the  desire  we  have  to  advance  the  glory 
of  our  God,  the  obedience  and  very  humble  service  due 
to  your  Majesty,  our  affection  for  our  native  land  and 
specially  for  the  Church  of  God — these  have  brought  us 
to  this  place  in  which  we  hope  that  our  good  God  and 
Father,  continuing  the  course  of  His  loving-kindness  and 
mercies,  will  confer  upon  you.  Sire,  grace  such  as  that 
which  He  conferred  on  the  young  King  Josiah,  two 
thousand  two  hundred  and  two  years  ago;  and  that 
under  your  happy  government,  Madam  [Catharine  de' 
Medici],  assisted  by  you.  Sire  [the  King  of  Navarre], 
and  the  other  and  excellent  princes  of  the  blood  and 
lords  of  your  council,  the  ancient  memory  shall  be  re- 
vived of  that  renowned  Queen  Clotilde,  who  served  of 
old  as  the  instrument  of  our  God  to  give  the  knowledge 
of  Himself  to  this  realm.  Such  is  our  hope.  For  this 
we  are  ready.  Sire,  to  employ  our  own  lives,  to  the  end 
that,  rendering  to  you  very  humble  service  in  a  matter  so 
holy  and  praiseworthy,  we  may  behold  the  true  golden 
age  in  which  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  shall  be 
worshipped  by  all  with  one  accord,  as  to  Him  belong  all 
honour  and  glory  for  ever.      Amen." 

Here  Beza  and  his  company  kneeled  for  a  mo- 
ment.    Then  rising  he  continued,  at  the  same  time 


184  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

presenting  to  the  king  the  Confession  of  Faith  of 
the  French  Churches: 

"  Sire,  your  Majesty  will  be  pleased  to  give  no  thought 
to  our  language,  rough  and  unpolished  as  it  is,  but  rather 
to  the  affection  that  is  wholly  given  to  you.  And,  inas- 
much as  the  points  of  our  doctrine  are  contained  clearly 
and  more  fully  in  this  Confession  of  Faith  which  we  have 
already  presented  to  you,  and  on  which  the  present  con- 
ference will  turn,  we  very  humbly  beseech  your  Majesty 
to  do  us  again  this  favour  of  receiving  it  from  our  hands, 
hoping  by  God's  grace  that,  after  having  conferred  on  it 
in  all  sobriety  and  reverence  for  His  holy  name,  we  shall 
find  ourselves-  in  agreement  as  to  it.  And  if,  on  the 
contrary,  our  iniquities  prevent  such  a  blessed  consum- 
mation, we  doubt  not  that  your  Majesty,  with  your  good 
council,  will  know  how  to  provide  for  everything,  with- 
out prejudice  to  either  of  the  two  parties,  according  to 
God  and  to  reason." 

Such  was  the  first  plea  of  the  Reformation  that 
reached  the  ear  of  a  king  of  France.  It  was  con- 
fessedly not  unworthy  of  the  orator  from  whose 
mouth  it  came,  of  the  rare  occasion,  of  the  subject, 
of  the  presence  in  which  it  was  delivered. 

One  dramatic  incident  that  interrupted  the  quiet 
course  of  Beza's  speech  has  been  purposely  omitted, 
in  order  that  the  reader  may  have  before  him  the 
unbroken  argument.      I  must  go  back  to  narrate  it. 

The  dignified  bearing  and  the  well-chosen  words 
of  Beza,  uttered  with  force  and  grace,  and  breathing 
the  spirit  of  profound  conviction,  had  commanded 
the  close  and  respectful  attention  of  his  hearers,  even 
when  he  uttered  unpalatable  sentiments,  from  the 


i56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  185 

beginning  of  his  discourse  until  he  was  well  on  in 
the  discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  sacraments.  It 
was  otherwise  when  the  Reformer  came,  after  a 
formal  rejection  both  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and 
of  the  Lutheran  doctrines,  to  speak  of  the  relative 
places  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  the  conse- 
crated elements  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  At  the 
words,  "  IVc  say  that  His  body  is  as  far  removed  from 
the  bread  and  zvine  as  the  higJiest  heaven  is  removed 
from  the  earth,''  a  number  of  the  prelates  who  had 
long  been  inwardly  chafing  with  anger  and  indigna- 
tion could  contain  themselves  no  longer.  Cardinals, 
bishops,  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  began  to  express 
their  dissent  in  loud  and  violent  tones.  Amid  the 
din  that  instantly  arose,  Beza's  voice  was  quite 
drowned  for  the  time,  and  the  only  intelligible  words 
that  could  be  made  out  were  exclamations  of  "  He 
has  blasphemed!  He  has  blasphemed  God!  "  com- 
ing from  one  and  another  of  the  ecclesiastics.  The 
bystanders  looked  for  nothing  else  than  that  they 
should  accompany  their  cries  with  a  symbolic  rend- 
ing of  their  clothes.  Cardinal  Tournon,  who  had 
risen  to  his  feet,  turned  to  the  young  king,  and 
prayed  him  either  to  command  Beza  to  desist  from 
speaking,  or  to  suffer  him  with  his  brethren,  the 
Roman  Catholic  prelates,  to  retire  from  the  place. 
The  queen-mother,  however,  thought  that  there 
had  been  quite  enough  of  this,  and  commanded 
silence.  Cardinal  Lorraine,  less  ardent  or  more 
politic  than  some  of  his  colleagues,  joined  with  her 
in  the  attempt  to  restore  order.  Beza,  who  mean- 
while had  stood  unmoved  the  sudden  outbreak  of 


i86  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

this   unexpected   storm,   continued  his  speech  and 
finished  it  according  to  his  original  design. 

At  the  close  of  Beza's  address  there  was  a  second 
demonstration.  No  sooner  had  he  stopped  than 
Cardinal  Tournon,  "  all  trembling  with  wrath," 
rose  and,  as  primate  and  presiding  ofificer  of  the  as- 
sembly of  prelates,  addressed  the  king.  It  was,  he 
said,  by  his  Majesty's  express  command  that  the 
cardinals  and  bishops,  in  order  to  obey  him,  had 
consented  (not,  however,  without  conscientious 
scruples)  to  listen  to  these  new  evangelists.  For 
they  foresaw  that  the  latter  might,  as  they  had 
done,  utter  things  unworthy  of  the  ear  of  a  Most 
Christian  King,  things  that  might  well  have  offended 
many  people  who  were  about  his  Majesty.  The  as- 
sembly of  the  prelates,  suspecting  that  this  might 
occur,  had,  continued  the  cardinal,  instructed  him 
in  this  case  to  beseech  the  monarch  very  humbly 
not  to  believe  or  give  credit  either  to  the  meaning 
or  to  the  words  uttered  by  the  person  who  had 
spoken  in  behalf  of  the  adherents  of  the  new  re- 
ligion, and  to  beg  him  to  suspend  the  judgment  he 
might  form  on  the  matter  until  he  should  have 
heard  the  remonstrances  which  the  assembly  in- 
tended to  make  to  him.  By  this  means  the  prelate 
hoped  that  his  Majesty  and  all  the  honourable  com- 
pany by  which  the  king  was  supported  would  be 
able  to  learn  the  difference  there  exists  between 
truth  and  falsehood.  He  begged  that  a  day  might 
be  assigned  the  prelates  for  this  purpose,  and  he 
added  that,  but  for  the  respect  they  entertained  for 
his  Majesty,  they  would  have  arisen  on  hearing  the 


r56i]  Colloquy  of  Poissy  187 

blasphemous  and  abominable  words  that  had  been 
uttered,  and  would  not  have  suffered  the  conference 
to  proceed.  What  they  had  done,  they  had  done 
in  order  to  obey  his  Majesty's  command;  and  they 
prayed  him  very  humbly  to  persevere  in  the  faith 
of  his  fathers,  and  invoked  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
the  blessed  saints  in  paradise,  both  male  and 
female,  that  this  might  be. 

The  cardinal  was  about  to  say  more,  but  Catharine 
cut  his  speech  short.      She  assured  him  that  nothing 
had  been  done  in  the  affair  save  by  the  decision  of 
the  royal  council  and  with  the  concurrence  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.      The  end  in  view,    said   she, 
was  not  to  make  innovations  or  commotions,  but,  on 
the  contrary,   to   appease   the  troubles   proceeding 
from  the  diversity  of  religious  opinions,  and  to  bring 
back  those  that  had   strayed  from  the  right  way. 
The  truth  was  to  be  established  by  means  of  the 
simple  Word  of  God,  which  must  be  the  sole  rule. 
**  We    are    here   to    hear    both    sides,"    said    she. 
"  Reply,  therefore,  to  the  speech  of  Monsieur  de 
B^ze  to  which  you  have  just  listened."     Cardinal 
Tournon  declined  to  accept  the  challenge  on  the 
ground  that  the  speech  had  been  a  long  one,  and 
could   not   be  answered  offhand;  but  he  promised 
that  if  a  written  copy  were  afforded  to  the  prelates, 
they  would  prepare  a  suitable  rejoinder.     The  point 
was  conceded,  and  herewith  the  proceedings  of  the 
day  came  to  an  end. 


CHAPTER  XI 

FURTHER    DISCUSSIONS — THE    EDICT    OF   JANUARY 
— MASSACRE    OF   VASSY 

1561,    1562 

IN  the  last  chapter  I  have  given  a  translation  of 
Beza's  speech  of  September  9,  1561,  before  the 
King  of  France,  the  chief  noblemen  of  his  court, 
and  the  assembled  cardinals  and  bishops  of  the 
realm.  Of  this  memorable  address  I  have  inserted 
nearly  the  whole,  and  almost  always  in  a  close  ren- 
dering. Two  reasons  have  moved  me  to  do  this. 
The  speech  possesses  a  peculiar  historical  import- 
ance, irrespective  of  the  person  who  was  the  mouth- 
piece of  the  Protestants,  now  for  the  first  time 
officially  summoned  for  their  defence  to  the  bar  of 
public  opinion.  As  such,  it  may  be  regarded  in  the 
light  of  a  great  State  paper,  wherein  every  sentence 
is  of  weight,  while  every  position  that  is  taken  has 
a  more  or  less  direct  bearing  on  the  subsequent 
course  of  the  French  reformatory  movement.  This 
is  the  more  general  consideration.  The  more  special 
and  personal  has  reference  to  Theodore  Beza  him- 
self. As  a  work  of  art,  the  address  at  the  Colloquy 
of  Poissy  exhibits,  better,  perhaps,  than  any  of  his 

188 


i56i]  Further  Discussions  189 

other  productions,  the  striking  oratorical  abilities  of 
the  man  whose  name  it  instantly  made  famous.  At 
the  same  time,  its  importance  as  an  exposition  of  the 
theological  views  of  Beza,  and,  we  may  add,  of  Cal- 
vin, should  not  be  overlooked  in  a  biographical  work 
like  the  present.  The  doctrinal  contrast  between 
the  Reformation  and  the  Roman  Catholic  system, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  between  the  position  of  Beza 
and  the  positions  of  the  Reformers  of  Wittenberg 
and  Zurich,  on  the  other,  is  so  clearly  marked  in 
this  document,  that  the  most  superficial  of  readers 
can  have  little  difficulty  in  forming  a  distinct  con- 
ception of  the  individuality  of  Beza  as  a  theologian. 
That  his  effort  had  proved  a  great  success  cannot 
be  denied.  Friends  and  foes  were  agreed  on  this 
point  at  least.  Hubert  Languet,  the  distinguished 
Protestant  negotiator,  who  chanced  to  be  in  Paris  at 
the  time,  expressed  himself  scarcely  more  strongly 
respecting  the  brilliancy  of  the  oration  than  did 
Claude  Haton,  the  curate  of  Provins.  But  whereas 
the  Protestants  gave  it  their  unqualified  approval, 
the  Roman  Catholics  condemned  with  great  bitter- 
ness those  utterances  respecting  the  sacraments 
which  had  raised  the  passionate  protests  of  Cardinal 
Tournon  and  his  associates.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
Catharine  de'  Medici  and  others  who  shared  her  po- 
litic views  regarded  Beza's  frank  statement  as  a  need- 
less and  offensive  expression  of  opinion, and  deplored 
what  they  stigmatised  as  a  blunder  that  came  near 
wrecking  the  conference.  But  whoever  will  look 
with  calmness  at  the  entire  situation  must  come  to 
^  different  conclusion.     A  suppression  of  the  candid 


iQO  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

views  of  the  Reformers  on  so  critical  a  point  might 
indeed  have  prevented  an  explosion  of  priestly  in- 
dignation at  this  particular  juncture.  But  it  could 
only  have  postponed  what  must  have  come  sooner 
or  later.  And  such  difficulties  are  for  the  most  part 
best  met  when  met  most  promptly.  A  conference 
broken  off  because  of  a  clear  and  unmistakable 
expression  of  opinion  on  an  important  theological 
subject — had  indeed  such  a  result  ensued — would 
have  wrought  far  less  damage  to  the  Protestant 
cause  than  might  have  resulted  from  an  insincere 
and  dishonest  treatment  of  a  distinctive  dogmia,  or 
from  a  politic  silence,  by  which  the  whole  tone  of 
the  discussion  would  have  been  lowered  and  the  self- 
respect  of  its  professors  would  have  been  sacrificed. 
Calvin  saw  this,  and,  so  far  from  condemning,  he 
applauded  Beza's  boldness  in  unqualified  terms. 

"  Your  speech  is  now  before  us,"  he  wrote  to  Beza  on 
receiving  the  text  of  the  oration,  "  wherein  God  wonder- 
fully directed  your  mind  and  your  tongue.  The  testi- 
mony that  stirred  up  the  wrath  of  the  holy  fathers  could 
not  but  be  given,  unless  you  had  consented  basely  to 
practise  evasion  and  expose  yourself  to  their  derision."  ^ 

Beza  had  nothing  to  retract  and  no  apology  to 
make.  Hearing,  however,  that  the  queen-mother 
was,  or  pretended  to  be,  displeased  with  what  he 
had  said  on  the  matter  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  he 
wrote  to  her,  the  next  day,  to  explain  both  what 
he  had  said,  which,  on  account  of  the  uproar  created 
by  the   prelates,   she   had  possibly   not  heard  dis- 

'  Letter  of  September  24,  1561.     Bonnet,  iv.,  229. 


i56i]  Further  Discussions  191 

tinctly,  and  the  object  for  which  he  had  said  it. 
The  letter  is  a  model  of  manly  frankness.  Far  from 
modifying  his  speech  in  any  particular,  he  repeated 
for  Catharine's  benefit  the  very  words  that  had  given 
offence.  He  declared  that  what  had  moved  him  to 
use  them  was  a  desire  to  defend  his  co-religionists 
from  the  charge  of  sacrilegiously  making  Jesus  Christ 
to  be  absent  from  His  Holy  Supper. 

"  But,"  said  he,  **  there  is  a  great  difference  between 
making  Him  present  insomuch  as  that  He  there  truly 
gives  us  His  body  and  blood,  and  saying  that  His  body 
and  blood  are  united  with  the  bread  and  wine.  I 
acknowledged  the  former,  which  is  also  the  chief  thing; 
I  denied  the  latter." 

Beza  begged  as  a  favour  that  he  might  be  permitted 
to  set  forth  his  views  more  fully  before  her  and  any 
other  persons  who  might  give  hiip  instruction  in  case 
he  was  wrong.  He  closed  his  letter  with  passages 
from  Saint  Augustine  and  Vigilius,  Bishop  of  Trent, 
who  had  expressed  themselves  quite  as  strongly  as 
he  had  done  respecting  the  matter  in  hand.' 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  no  such  oppor- 
tunity as  Beza  asked  for  was  vouchsafed  to  him. 
The  prelates,  averse  from  the  beginning  to  anything 
like  free  and  fair  discussion  with  the  Protestants, 
were  still  more  disinclined  to  treat  with  them  since 
they  had  heard  the  magnificent  exposition  of  the 
Reformed  doctrines  by  one  who  was  at  the  same 
time    forcible    and   gentle,   courteous  and  self-pos- 

^  The  letter  is  given  in  La  Place,  i68,  169,  and  in  the  Hist.  Eccle's., 
i.,  580-584. 


19^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

sessed.  But  a  promise  had  been  given  that  Beza 
should  be  answered,  and  that  promise  the  Cardinal 
of  Lorraine  undertook  to  redeem  just  one  week  after 
Beza  had  spoken.  The  place  was  the  same;  the  as- 
sembled dignitaries  were  the  same ;  the  Protestants 
were  the  same  except  that  their  numbers  were  in- 
creased by  the  arrival  of  the  distinguished  Peter 
Martyr.  In  one  respect,  however,  there  was  a 
notable  difference.  The  cardinal,  instead  of  speak- 
ing, like  Beza,  from  behind  a  bar,  was  provided  with 
a  pulpit  from  which  he  might  deliver  his  discourse 
as  one  having  authority,  and  thus  appear  to  be  either 
a  learned  preacher  instructing  the  ignorant,  or  a 
judge  pronouncing  the  final  sentence  of  the  law 
upon  offenders. 

And  how  did  he  attempt  to  answer  the  full,  clear, 
and  candid  exposition  of  the  Reformed  faith  made 
by  Beza  ?  Chiefly  by  an  assumption  of  a  lordly 
superiority,  with  a  slight  admixture  of  patronising 
condescension  and  unsolicited  compassion.  He 
began  by  lauding  at  great  length  both  the  temporal 
authority  of  kings  and  the  spiritual  authority  of 
ecclesiastics.  He  concluded  with  an  appeal  to 
Charles  IX.  to  adhere  to  the  religion  of  his  prede- 
cessors, all  of  them  loyal  to  the  holy  Catholic  faith, 
from  whom  he  had  inherited  the  distinction  of  being 
styled  not  only  "  Most  Christian  "  but  ''  First  Son 
of  the  Church,"  and  with  a  corresponding  appeal  to 
Catharine  de'  Medici,  promising  for  himself  and  all 
his  associates  of  the  Gallican  Church  that'  they 
would  not  spare  their  very  life-blood  in  the  main- 
tenance of  the  true  Catholic  doctrine,  nor  fail  to  do 


i56i]  Further  Discussions  193 

their  full  duty  in  the  service  of  the  king  and  the 
support  of  his  crown.  On  only  two  points  of  the 
Reformed  confession  did  the  cardinal  even  pretend 
to  enter  into  argument.  He  maintained  that  the 
Church  is  no  mere  aggregation  of  the  elect,  but  in- 
cludes the  tares  along  with  the  wheat.  He  argued 
that  the  presence  of  the  Lord  in  the  Eucharist  is  not 
spiritual  alone,  but  real  and  corporeal  as  well.  As 
for  the  rest,  he  treated  the  Protestants  as  wayward 
but  misguided  children  for  whom  he  had  no  re- 
proaches to  utter,  but  only  pity;  the  more  so  that 
they  had  shown  some  disposition  to  receive  instruc- 
tion and  to  return  to  a  Church  that  was  ready  to 
welcome  them  so  soon  as  they  consented  to  submit 
to  her  authority.  But  if  they  would  not  return,  and 
if  their  ministers  would  accord  in  doctrine  neither 
with  the  Latin  nor  with  the  Greek  Church,  and  in- 
deed remained  at  variance  with  their  fellow-Reform- 
ers, the  Lutherans  of  Germany,  he  suggested  that 
the  French  Protestants  ought  to  withdraw  to  some 
remote  region  where  they  would  cease  to  disturb 
flocks  over  which  they  had  no  legitimate  authority, 
to  a  solitude  where  at  least  they  might  remain  until 
their  new-fangled  opinions  should  grow  as  old  and 
venerable  as  the  creed  of  the  established  Church.^ 

When  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  was  through,  the 
prelates  at  once  made  a  dramatic  demonstration  of 
their  approval,  starting  to  their  feet  in  a  body,  and, 
with  Cardinal  Tournon  at  their  head,  pressing  about 
Charles  IX.  They  begged  the  young  prince  to  re- 
main constant  to  the  teachings  of  the  Church,  and 

^  La  Place,  170-177  ;  Rise  of  the  Huguenots^  i.,  52S,  529. 
13 


194  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

particularly  to  require  that  Beza  and  his  associates 
should  accept  and  sign  what  they  had  just  been 
taught,  before  being  permitted  to  receive  any  addi- 
tional instruction.  The  Genevese  Reformer  rose  in 
his  turn  and  claimed  the  privilege  of  answering 
Cardinal  Lorraine  on  the  spot — a  request  which,  for 
reasons  of  her  own,  Catharine  de'  Medici  thought 
fit  to  deny,  promising  that  he  should  have  an  oppor- 
tunity at  a  later  time.' 

With  this  incident  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy  assumed 
so  different  a  shape  as  scarcely  to  be  the  same.  The 
clergy  could  with  difficulty  be  persuaded  to  consent 
to  meet  the  Protestants  a  third  time,  and  when  they 
yielded  to  pressure,  the  small  room  of  the  prioress 
was  large  enough  to  contain  all  that  presented  them- 
selves— a  dozen  bishops  and  cardinals  with  about 
as  many  attendant  theologians  bearing  ponderous 
tomes,  the  works  of  the  Church  Fathers  of  the  first 
five  centuries,  from  which  Cardinal  Lorraine  was  to 
refute  the  Reformed  doctrine.  On  the  other  side, 
the  twelve  Protestant  ministers  were  again  admitted, 
but  not  the  laymen.  Charles  IX..  was  absent.  In 
his  place  came  Catharine  de'  Medici  and  the  King 
and  Queen  of  Navarre,  with  sundry  members  of  the 
royal  council.  The  conference  was  undignified  and 
disorderly.  Its  regular  course  was  interrupted  by 
the  intemperate  speech  of  a  Dominican  friar,  Claude 
de  Sainctes,  and  by  the  absurd  demand  sprung  upon 
the  French  Protestants  by  Cardinal  Lorraine  that 
they  should  answer  categorically  the  question, 
whether  or  no  they  would  consent  to  subscribe  to 

'  La  Place,  177. 


I56i] 


Further  Discussions  195 


the  Augsburg  Confession  which  was  received  by  the 
Protestants  of  Germany.      Evidently  no  good  could 
be    expected    to    come    from    a    conference    which 
bade  fair  to  degenerate  into  an  unseemly  wrangle. 
Yet,  two  days  later,  in  a  meeting  at  which  Beza  was 
permitted   to   reply    to  the    prelate's    unreasonable 
proposal,   the    Reformer   maintained    his   dignified 
composure.      He  reminded  the  queen-mother,  with 
manly  frankness,  of  the  issues  dependent  upon  the 
conference.      It   was    of   supreme  importance  that 
this  should  be  conducted  in  a  fair  and  friendly  man- 
ner.     He   retorted   with   quiet   but    effective   irony 
to  an  ill-timed  speech  made  at  the'  last  session  by 
a  Roman   Catholic   theologian,   Claude  d'Espense, 
who  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  Protestant  min- 
isters were  intruders  who  had  assumed  their  ofifice 
without  a  proper"  call."     What,  asked  Beza,  if  a 
bishop  were  to  ask  a  Reformed  pastor  his  authority 
for  undertaking  to  preach  and  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, and  were  to  be  met  with  the  counter-ques- 
tions:  "Were  you  elected  to  the  episcopate  by  the 
elders  of  your  church?    Did  the  people  seek  for  you? 
Were  inquiries  instituted  regarding  your  conduct, 
your  life,  and  your  belief  ?"   or,   "  Who  ordained 
you,    and    how    much   money   did   you    pay   to   be 
ordained  ?"      Many  a  bishop's  cheek  would  blush 
were  he  compelled  to  reply  to  such  an  interrogatory. 
Nor  was  Beza  less  happy  when  he  drew  attention  to 
the  circumstance  that  Cardinal  Lorraine,  instead  of 
•  undertaking  to  prove  by  the  Church  Fathers  of  the 
first  centuries  the  falsity  of  the  Protestant  position 
^nd  thus  affording  his  antagonists  the  opportunity 


196  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

to  meet  him  on  the  field  of  honest  discussion,  de- 
manded of  them  that  they  subscribe  to  an  article 
said  to  be  extracted  from  the  Augsburg  Confession 
and  treating  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
as  the  condition  of  future  conference. 

Beza  was  ably  reinforced  by  the  Florentine,  Peter 
Martyr  Vermigli.  This  famous  Italian  exile,  now 
over  sixty  years  of  age,  respecting  whom  an  oppon- 
ent (D'Espense)  frankly  admitted  that  there  was  no 
other  man  of  his  time  that  had  written  so  amply  and 
with  so  much  erudition  on  the  subject  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,^  had  come  to  France  upon  the  pressing 
invitation  of  Catharine  de'  Medici,  and  provided 
with  a  special  safe-conduct  from  Charles  IX.  He 
was  a  striking  personage.  Beza,  in  his  collection  of 
lives  of  worthies  and  their  portraits,  written  long 
after,^  felicitously  styles  him  a  phoenix  born  from 
the  ashes  of  Savonarola.  From  a  monk  and  visitor- 
general  of  the  Augustinian  order.  Martyr  had  be- 
come a  Reformer,  and  had  fled  beyond  the  Alps. 
He  was  a  professor  at  Strassburg  with  Bucer.  In 
King  Edward's  reign  he  laboured  in  England  with 
zeal  and  acquired  a  distinguished  place  among  those 
who  strove  to  make  the  services  of  the  Established 
Church  free  from  the  taint  of  Roman  Catholicism. 
He  was  appointed  to  lecture  on  the  Scriptures  at 
Oxford.  After  her  accession.  Queen  Elizabeth,  as 
Bishop  Jewel  tells  us,  was  altogether  desirous  that 
he  should  be  invited  back  to  England,  that,  "  as  he 
had  formerly  tilled,  as  it  were,  the  University  by  his 

'  La  Place,  197. 
'^  Beza,  Icones^  s,  v. 


i56i]  Further  Discussions  197 

lectures,  so  he  might  again  ivater  it  by  the  same."  ' 
He  had  now  been  five  or  six  years  at  Zurich,  a  co- 
adjutor of  Buliinger,  at  the  head  of  the  Church  and 
exercising  a  powerful  influence  across  the  Channel, 
especially  by  his  letters.  His  great  reputation 
and  the  dignity  of  his  presence  added  force  to  his 
admirable  address.  In  French  he  could  not  have 
spoken  with  freedom.  He  would  therefore  natur- 
ally have  used  Latin,  the  common  language  of  the 
learned  world  ;  but  he  preferred  to  fall  back  upon 
his  native  tongue,  in  order  that  Catharine  de' 
Medici,  like  himself  a  Florentine,  might  understand 
him  the  more  readily.  A  little  while  later  on  the 
same  day,  when  Lainez,  the  second  general  of  the 
Jesuit  order,  and  as  such  the  successor  of  Ignatius 
Loyola,  obtained  permission  to  speak  and  uttered  a 
coarse  tirade  against  the  Reformers,  likewise  em- 
ploying the  Italian  tongue,  no  objection  was  made 
to  his  procedure.  But  Peter  Martyr  was  rudely  in- 
terrupted by  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  who  petu- 
lantly exclaimed  that  he  did  not  want  to  listen  to 
a  foreign  tongue.^ 

There  was  little  more  of  the  colloquy  which  had 
begun  so  pompously,  and  it  adjourned  never  to  meet 
again.  In  its  train  followed  a  few  private  confer- 
ences in  which  five  Roman  Catholics  chosen  for  their 
supposed  moderation  of  sentiment  met  an  equal 
number  of  Protestant  ministers  in  one  of  the  rooms 
of  the  mansion  occupied  at  Saint  Germain  by  the 


^  Jewel  to  Martyr,  Nov.  5,  1559.     Zz^rzV/z  Z<?//t'rj- (Parker  Society), 
p.  68. 

^  La  Place,  tibi  supra. 


19^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

King  of  Navarre,  and  deliberated  upon  some  of  the 
points  at  issue.  Beza  was  one  of  the  company. 
His  colleagues  were  Peter  Martyr  Vermigli,  Augus- 
tin  Marlorat,  Jean  de  I'Espine,  and  Nicholas  des 
Gallars.  The  party  was  compelled  by  the  demand 
of  the  bishops  at  Poissy  to  take  up  first  the  question 
of  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  Al- 
though this  was  the  very  point  of  difficulty  between 
Reformed  and  Roman  Catholics,  less  trouble  was 
found  in  coming  to  an  agreement  than  anyone  not 
familiar  with  the  constitution  of  the  joint  commis- 
sion on  the  Roman  Catholic  side  would  have  appre- 
hended. Peter  Martyr,  loyal  successor  of  Zwingli 
and  Zwingli's  views,  put  the  matter  plainly  from  the 
Protestant  position  when  he  told  his  associates  that, 
for  his  part,  he  believed  that  the  body  of  Christ  is 
truly  and  as  to  its  substance  nowhere  else  than  in 
heaven ;  while  he  did  not  deny  that  the  true  body 
and  true  blood  of  Christ,  given  on  the  cross  for  the 
salvation  of  men,  are,  by  faith  and  spiritually,  re- 
ceived by  believers  in  the  Holy  Supper.  Twice  did 
the  conferees  laboriously  draw  up  an  article  which 
should  express  the  thought  of  Martyr,  yet  in  such 
language  as  to  satisfy  both  parties.  The  first  result 
of  their  efforts  was  instantly  rejected  by  the  bishops. 
When  the  supposed  objection  had  been  obviated 
by  important  changes  of  phraseology  and  a  second 
article  had  been  prepared,  which  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic members  felt  confident  would  prove  fully  accept- 
able, their  work  was  scornfully  repudiated  and  the 
bearers  were  dismissed  with  the  accusation  of  having 
betrayed  their  cause  to  the  Protestants.     The  Pro- 


LOUIS  OF   BOURBON,   PRINCE  OF  CONDE. 


i56i]  .   Further  Discussions  199 

testants  were  no  better  pleased  with  the  article  than 
were  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  by  mutual  consent 
all  further  attempts  were  abandoned  to  reconcile 
what  was  really  irreconcilable ;  or,  rather,  to  gloss 
over  substantial  disagreement  by  means  of  terms 
that  could  be,  and  would  be,  interpreted  diversely 
by  different  persons.  All  that  could  be  said  to  the 
credit  of  the  recent  effort  was  that  it  had  been 
honestly  made  with  the  earnest  purpose  to  postpone, 
or,  if  possible,  avert  altogether,  the  outbreak  of  civil 
war  which  all  intelligent  men  saw  to  be  imminent. 

With  the  discharge  of  Beza's  commission  to  plead 
the  Protestant  cause  in  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  the 
object  of  his  coming  to  France  was  fulfilled.  He 
was  anxious  to  resume  his  duties  at  Geneva.  When, 
however,  he  applied  for  leave  to  start  on  his  home- 
ward way,  he  was  so  far  from  obtaining  it  that 
Catharine  de'  Medici  sent  for  him  and  strongly 
urged  that  he  should  remain  at  least  for  a  time. 
Her  request  might  have  been  disregarded,  high  as 
was  the  advantageous  estimate  of  his  character  and 
services  which  it  implied.  It  was  otherwise  when 
Prince  Conde,  Gaspard  de  Coligny,  and  the  most 
prominent  members  of  the  Huguenot  party  added 
their  vehement  solicitations,  begging  that  he  should 
not  desert  them  at  a  time  when  it  was  given  out 
that  the  settlement  of  the  religious  status  of  the 
adherents  of  the  Reformed  faith  was  about  to  be 
settled  by  an  Assembly  of  Notables.  In  the  cir- 
cumstances, Beza  had  no  choice  but  to  subordinate 
his  personal  preferences  to  the  general  good  of  the 
cause.     He  was   the  less  anxious  to  be  at  home, 


200  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

perhaps,  that  he  heard  from  Geneva  that  the  theo- 
logical school  was  suffering  no  detriment  by  reason  of 
the  absence  of  one  of  its  two  theological  professors, 
since  his  colleague  was  teaching  immense  numbers 
of  students.  Just  at  this  moment  an  enthusias- 
tic correspondent  of  Farel  wrote:  "It  is  a  marvel 
to  see  the  number  of  persons  that  listen  to  Monsieur 
Calvin's  lectures.  I  estimate  them  at  more  than  a 
thousand  daily."  ^  Meanwhile,  still  more  phe- 
nomenal was  the  continual  increase  of  avowed 
Protestants  in  almost  all  quarters  of  France. 
Everybody  heard  of  the  unprecedented  gatherings 
of  worshippers  that  took  place  in  certain  cities  and 
towns;  but  everybody  did  not  know,  as  Catharine 
de'  Medici  learned  by  instituting  a  special  inquiry, 
that  the  Huguenots  had  over  two  thousand  churches 
in  France — more  precisely,  two  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  and  over,  varying  in  size  from  a  single 
church  comprising  almost  all  the  inhabitants  of  some 
considerable  town  and  ministered  to  by  two  or  more 
pastors,  down  to  a  church  of  a  few  members  in  the 
midst  of  an  overwhelmingly  superior  Roman  Catho- 
lic population."  As  for  Beza,  his  most  pressing 
desire  for  the  moment  was  that  the  Protestants, 
conscious  of  growing  numbers,  might  restrain  their 
natural  impetuosity  for  at  least  two  months;  so 
sanguine  were  his  hopes  that  the  coming  Assembly 
of  Notables  would  materially  better  their  condition.' 


1  De    Beaulieu  to  Farel,    Geneva,    October   3,    1561.     Baum, 
(doc),  92. 

^  Hist.  Eccles.,  i.,  743-745. 

2  Beza  to  Calvin,  November  4,  1561.     Baum,  i.  (doc),  121, 


1562]  Edict  of  January  201 

The  queen-mother  was  evidently  glad  to  give  audi- 
ence to  the  Genevese  Reformer  in  France,  and  reck- 
oned upon  his  cooperation  in  the  maintenance  of 
peace.     Nor  were  his  services  unimportant. 

On  January  17,  1562,  the  results  of  the  delibera- 
tions of  the  Assembly  of  Notables  were  published 
in  the  form  of  a  royal  edict  —  known  in  history 
as  the  Edict  of  January.  For  the  first  time  in 
French  history  the  Protestants  were  accorded  official 
recognition,  and  gained  a  part,  at  least,  of  their 
natural  rights.  Not  only  were  they  suffered  to  re- 
side in  the  kingdom,  but  they  were  permitted  to 
worship  God  in  gatherings  of  unarmed  men  and 
women,  anywhere  outside  of  the  walls  of  the  cities. 
If  they  were  commanded  to  surrender  all  the  edifices 
of  which  they  had  taken  possession  situated  within 
the  city  walls,  the  loss  was  of  small  consequence  in 
view  of  the  importance  of  the  cardinal  concession, 
especially  as  the  law  guaranteed  them  safety  and 
protection  on  the  way  to  and  from  their  places  of 
worship.^ 

After  the  enactment  of  the  Edict  of  January, 
there  remained  much  to  occupy  Beza's  attention. 
First  of  all,  there  was  the  task  of  allaying  the  dis- 
satisfaction of  his  fellow-believers,  who  had  not 
unreasonably  hoped  for  a  law  that  should  accord 
complete  religious  equality  both  of  worship  and  of 
profession,  and  who  were  impatient  that  their  antici- 
pations remained  unfulfilled.      Here  Beza's  ability 


1  See  the  text  of  the  Edict  of  January  in  the  original  French  in 
many  works,  e.  g.,  Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplomatique,  v.,  89-91  ;  M^- 
vioires  de  Cond^,  iii.,  8-15  ;  Hist.  EccUs.,  i.,  752-758. 


202  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

and  wide  influence  were  of  great  service  to  the 
queen,  who,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  was  sincerely- 
desirous  of  ending  the  present  state  of  uncertainty 
and  consequent  danger,  by  the  cordial  acceptance 
of  the  edict  by  both  religious  parties.  I  may  in- 
stance, in  particular,  a  letter  which  he  drew  up  in 
the  name  of  the  ministers  and  deputies  of  the 
Churches  while  thesfe  still  remained  at  Saint  Ger- 
main, and  which  was  sent  to  all  the  Protestant  con- 
gregations throughout  France,  counselling  them  to 
accept  loyally  the  king's  edict,  and  encouraging 
them  to  hope  that  the  new  law  would  prove  only  the 
harbinger  of  better  things  to  come.  The  letter  was 
accompanied  by  a  paper  taking  up  all  the  fourteen 
articles  of  the  new  law,  examining  each  in  turn,  and 
explaining  how  it  should  be  observed.^  I  cannot 
speak  further  of  these  able  documents,  the  circula- 
tion of  which  had  the  desired  effect  of  securing  the 
submission  of  the  Huguenots.  Nor  shall  I  detain 
the  reader  long  with  a  fresh  conference  between 
Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  theologians,  in 
which  Beza  played  a  conspicuous  part,  and  as  a 
consequence  of  which  he  attained  yet  greater  pro- 
minence. Catharine  de'  Medici  still  clung  to  the 
hope  that  by  discussion  a  common  ground  might 
be  reached.  Under  her  auspices  a  larger  company 
than  the  last  convened  in  the  grand  council  hall  of 
the  castle  of  Saint  Germain.  Iconoclasm  had  be- 
come a  common  feature  of  the  reformatory  move- 
ment of  late,  much  against  the  will  of  the  leading 
Reformers,  despite,  indeed,  their  vehement  protests; 

*  In  Memoir es  de  Cond^^  iii.,  93-98.     Hist.  EccUs.^  i,,  760-766. 


1562]  Edict  of  January  203 

but  it  was  difficult  to  restrain  the  people,  and  the 
statues  and  paintings  of  saints,  whether  adorning 
the  interior  or  the  exterior  of  churches,  fared  ill  at 
the  hands  of  mobs  intent  on  the  forcible  removal 
of  the  insignia  of  popery.  It  may  have  been  this 
circumstance  that  led  Catharine  to  propose  Images 
and  Image  Worship  as  the  special  topic  for  the  con- 
sideration of  the  learned  men  she  brought  together. 
But  nothing  came  of  their  debates,  unless  it  be  that 
they  showed  not  only  that  the  views  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  of  the  Protestants  were  irreconcilable, 
but  that  the  former  were  not  agreed  among  them- 
selves. It  was  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Va- 
lence, Montluc,  that  brought  out  the  startljng  fact 
that  one  zealous  controversialist,  Artus  Desire,  had 
had  the  effrontery  to  compose  a  metrical  substitute 
for  the  second  Commandment,  as  versified  by  the 
Protestants,  wherein  the  Almighty  was  made  to 
order,  instead  of  to  forbid,  the  making  of  graven 
images  of  anything  in  heaven,  on  the  earth,  or  under 
the  earth,  and  to  be  greatly  pleased  ^'x^h.,  instead  of 
condemning,  whatever  honour  or  worship  was  paid 
to  it.'  Beza's  long  speech  was  a  masterly  discussion 
of  the  entire  theme,  and  received  the  strong  com- 
mendation of  his  brethren,  however  little  it  may 
have  convinced  his  opponents."^     The  profitless  con- 


^  The  stupid  parody  ran  : 

"  Tailler  tu  te  fera  image 

De  quelque  chose  que  se  soit. 
Si  honneur  lui  fais  et  hommage, 
Ton  Dieu  grand  plaisir  en  re9oit." 
"^  Hist.  Eccle's.,  i.,  7S1-79S. 


204  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

ference  lasted  about  a  fortnight,  from  the  28th  of 
January  to  the  nth  of  February,  1562. 

Twenty  days  later  came  the  Massacre  of  Vassy, 
the  spark  which  kindled  a  conflagration  that  was  to 
rage  in  France  for  most  of  the  rest  of  the  century. 

The  Edict  of  January,  with  its  equitable,  but 
limited,  concessions  to  the^  Protestants,  was  su- 
premely distasteful  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
and  to  the  bigoted  adherents  of  that  Church  who 
would  have  toleration  for  none  but  themselves.  It 
was,  consequently,  an  object  of  special  abhorrence 
to  the  family  of  Guise,  a  family  which  aspired. to 
represent  the  most  extreme  tendencies  in  Church 
and  State  and  thereby  to  strengthen  its  already  ex- 
orbitant influence.  The  enactment  of  the  Edict  of 
January  was  a  virtual  repeal  of  the  intolerant  Edict 
of  July  of  the  previous  summer,  respecting  which 
Duke  Francis  of  Guise,  more  blunt  of  speech  and 
less  politic  than  his  brother,  Cardinal  Lorraine,  had 
openly  boasted  that  his  sword  would  never  rest  in 
its  scabbard  when  the  execution  of  the  ordinance 
was  in  question.  He  was  in  a  state  of  irritation 
which  any  fortuitous  incident  might  easily  convert 
into  insane  fury.  On  Sunday  morning,  March  i, 
1562,  while  on  his  return  from  a  conference  at  Sa- 
verne,  near  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  with  Duke 
Christopher  of  Wurtemberg,  he  chanced  to  enter  a 
small  town  of  Champagne  named  Vassy,  at  this 
time  a  fief  whose  revenues  were  enjoyed  by  his  kins- 
woman Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  A  congregation  of 
Huguenots  were  worshipping  in  a  rude  barn  which 
they  had  transformed  into  a  sanctuary.     Their  serv- 


X  H 

o 

oc  -> 

<  u. 

2  o 

-  a 

>  E 

CO  > 


"S-  "^    c    5 


=    ^ 


bX) 


£  2  g  c  «    .  ■£  2 
«    c  -^  -^        S    ><  ^ 


.£      3 


»   5.    ^   E 


S  -^ 


1562]  Massacre  of  Vassy  205 

ices  were  interrupted  by  the  duke's  followers.  It 
is  needless  here  to  decide  precisely  how  the  assault 
was  brought  on,  whether  by  the  nobleman's  express 
orders,  or  by  the  forward  zeal  of  his  attendants  and 
without  his  previous  participation.  The  main  facts 
are  indisputable.  A  band  of  peaceable  Protestants 
were  broken  in  upon,  in  the  midst  of  their  prayers 
and  hymns,  under  the  eyes  of  one  of  the  first  noble- 
men of  the  kingdom,  and  men,  women,  and  children, 
who  had  come  to  worship  the  Prince  of  Peace,  were 
slaughtered  like  sheep,  and  without  distinction  of 
age  or  sex.  Many  fell  within  the  rude  but  sacred 
enclosure,  fugitives  were  picked  off  by  the  arque- 
busiers  and  slain  before  they  could  reach  a  place  of 
safety.  Fifty  or  sixty  persons  dead  and  about  twice 
that  number  of  badly  wounded  were  the  fruits  of 
that  Sunday  morning's  work. 

Say  what  they  would,  the  friends  of  Guise  could 
never  prove  that  the  massacre  was  not  in  glaring 
violation  of  the  edict  signed  only  six  weeks  pre- 
viously, forbidding  judges,  magistrates,  and  all  other 
persons,  of  whatever  station,  quality,  or  condition 
they  might  be,  from  hindering,  disquieting,  molest- 
ing, or  in  any  wise  attacking  "  those  of  the  new  re- 
ligion "  in  or  when  going  to  or  from  their  places  of 
assembly  outside  of  the  walls  of  the  cities. 

When  the  news  reached  the  French  court  and  the 
capital,  the  Protestants  loudly  protested  against 
the  daring  infringement  of  the  law,  and  demanded 
the  punishment  of  the  law-breaker,  whom  they  de- 
nounced as  a  murderer.  Beza  was  still  in  France. 
The  Churches  begged  him  to  represent  them  and  to 


2o6  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

use  his  recently  acquired  influence  in  securing  from 
the  queen-mother  and  her  advisers  a  prompt  con- 
demnation of  this  first  blow  struck  at  the  Edict  of 
January.  Francour  accompanied  him  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Protestant  nobles.  The  two  envoys 
found  Charles  IX.  and  Catharine  de'  Medici  at 
Monceaux.  In  an  audience  at  which  were  present 
Antoine  of  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre,  the  recently 
arrived  papal  legate,  Cardinal  Ferrara,  and  others, 
Beza  clearly  and  forcibly  set  forth  the  attack  that 
had  been  made  upon  the  solemn  decree  of  the  king 
by  one  of  his  subjects,  on  his  own  personal  respons- 
ibility, and  the  evident  plots  laid  to  ruin  the 
Huguenots  of  France.  He  frankly  and  temperately 
laid  before  his  Majesty  the  disasters  that  must  cer- 
tainly flow  from  such  flagrant  acts  of  injustice  if 
permitted  to  pass  unpunished.  Catharine  returned 
a  gracious  reply,  promising  that  the  matter  should 
be  thoroughly  investigated,  and  that,  if  the  Protest- 
ants exercised  self-restraint,  ample  provision  should 
be  made  to  satisfy  them.  The  Duke  of  Guise  would 
not,  she  hoped,  pursue  his  journey  to  Paris.  She 
had  written  to  him  and  requested  him  not  to  do  so. 
There  was  one  person  who  had  listened  to  Beza's 
remarks  and  to  the  queen's  conciliatory  response 
with  ill-concealed  anger,  and  who  could  contain 
himself  no  longer.  This  was  Antoine  of  Bourbon, 
formerly,  as  we  have  seen,  and  so  long  as  it  served 
his  purpose,  an  ardent  friend  of  the  Reformation, 
but  of  late  a  pronounced  ally  of  the  Guises,  since 
the  promise  of  the  restoration  of  his  old  kingdom 
had  been  held  forth  to  allure  him.     He  now  broke 


1562] 


Massacre  of  Vassy  207 


out   with    reproaches   against    the    Protestants   for 
going,  as  he  said,  armed  to  their  preaching  services. 

"  Arms  in  the  hands  of  the  wise,"  rephed  Beza,  "  are 
bearers  of  peace.  The  occurrence  at  Vassy  shows  how 
necessary  they  are  to  the  Church,  unless  safety  be  other- 
wise provided,  and  this  provision.  Sire,  I  most  humbly 
beg  you,  in  the  name  of  the  Church  which  until  now  has 
cherished  such  hope  in  you,  to  make." 

The  legate,  a  troublesome  priest,  whose  sole  mis- 
sion to  France  was  in  the  interest  of  the  mainten- 
ance of  proscription  laws  against  the  Huguenots, 
here  attempted  to  support  Navarre's  allegations  by 
descanting  upon  the  misdeeds  of  the  Protestants 
which  recently  had  caused  riot  and  bloodshed  at 
their  place  of  assembly  near  the  church  of  Saint  Me- 
dard.  Beza,  having  been  present  on  the  occasion 
referred  to,  was  able  to  refute  the  prelate's  calumny 
on  the  spot,  after  which  he  repeated  the  demand  for 
the  punishment  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  who  was 
known  to  be  coming  armed  as  in  a  time  of  war — a 
procedure  from  which  nothing  but  mischief  could 
ensue.  Hereupon  Antoine  of  Bourbon  threw  off  all 
disguise,  and  avowed  himself  the  duke's  friend  and 
partisan.  ''  Whoever,"  said  he,  "  shall  touch  my 
brother  the  Duke  of  Guise  with  the  tip  of  his  finger, 
will  touch  my  whole  body." 

It  was  a  critical  juncture  in  the  history  of  French 
Protestantism,  and  the  champion  of  French  Pro- 
testantism realised  the  full  responsibility  that  de- 
volved upon  him.  First  he  begged  Antoine  to  hear 
him  patiently  as  one  whom  he  had  long  known  and 


2o8  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

whom  he  had,  not  many  months  ago,  requested  to 
come  to  France  to  help  in  giving  peace  to  the  realm. 
Next  he  reminded  him  that  the  way  of  justice  is 
God's  way,  and  that  justice  is  a  debt  which  kings 
owe  to  their  poor  subjects.  To  ask  for  justice  is  to 
wrong  nobody.  Antoine  had  attempted  to  excuse 
the  massacre  at  Vassy  by  alleging  that  the  Protest- 
ant worshippers  had  thrown  stones  at  Guise  and  his 
followers,  and  that  thereupon  the  former  had  been 
unable  to  restrain  the  fury  of  his  men,  and  blood- 
shed followed.  Princes,  said  he,  are  not  to  be  ex- 
pected to  submit  to  being  stoned.  **  If  that  be  so," 
the  Reformer  quietly  responded, '  *  the  Duke  of  Guise 
will  be  exculpated  on  producing  the  persons  who 
committed  the  fault."  And  then  it  was  that,  rising 
to  the  height  of  that  commanding  eloquence  which 
few  of  his  contemporaries  knew  so  well  how  to 
attain,  he  closed  his  address  to  the  insincere  King 
of  Navarre  with  words  which  the  Churches  of  France 
never  forgot,  but  which,  through  the  ages  of  perse- 
cution that  were  to  follow,  they  cherished  as  a 
motto  to  sustain  their  courage.  "  Sire,"  he  gravely 
said,  **  it  belongs  in  truth  to  the  Church  of  God,  in 
whose  name  I  speak,  to  endure  blows  and  not  to 
inflict  them.  But  it  will  also  please  your  Majesty 
to  remember  that  she  is  an  anvil  that  has  worn  out 
many  hammers." 

Thus  the  incident  closed,  and  Beza  took  his  leave. 
"  It  was  God's  will,"  says  the  author  of  the  history 
of  the  origins  of  the  Protestant  Churches,  "  that 
these  words  should  be  spoken  to  the  King  of  Navarre, 
and  that,  notwithstanding,  Beza  should  return  safe 


1562]  Massacre  of  Vassy  ^09 

and  sound,  having  discharged  a  sufficiently  hazard- 
ous commission."  ' 

Within  a  few  weeks  there  broke  out  the  first  of 
those  unfortunate  civil  wars  in  which  the  Huguenots 
became  involved.  Conde  took  the  field  at  their 
head.  Catharine  de'  Medici,  who  had  implored  his 
assistance  in  letters  still  extant,  the  authenticity  of 
which  cannot  rationally  be  doubted,''  ended  a  period 
of  vacillation,  and  not  so  much  consented,  as  was 
forced,  to  put  herself  into  the  power  of  his  oppon- 
ents. Beza  could  not  in  conscience  desert  the 
Huguenots  at  a  moment  when  his  services  were  im- 
peratively needed.  His  return  to  his  pulpit  and  to 
his  lecture-room  at  Geneva  was  of  necessity  long 
deferred. 


^  Hist.  Eccle's.,  ii,,  3-6, 

^  See  the  text  of  letters  in  Metnoires  de  Cond/,  iii.,  213.     Rise  of 
the  Htiguenots,  ii.,  32. 
14 


CHAPTER  XII 

COUNSELLOR   OF   CONDE  AND   THE  HUGUENOTS  IN 
THE   FIRST   CIVIL   WAR 

1562,    1563 

IT  was  not  without  an  effort  that  the  French  Pro- 
testants had  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  the 
little  republic  of  Geneva,  ever  jealous  of  its  rights, 
the  "  loan  "  of  Theodore  Beza  until  this  hour.  The 
earnest  letters  of  the  excellent  and  highly  respected 
Jeanne  d'Albret,. Queen  of  Navarre,  supported  as 
they  were  by  the  entreaties  of  Admiral  Coligny  and 
other  Huguenot  noblemen,  however,  prevailed  over 
the  reluctance  of  the  Genevese,  and  on  December 
22,  1 561,  the  Great  Council  prolonged  Beza's  leave 
of  absence  for  three  or  four  months/  We  shall  see 
that  this  was  not  the  last  time  that  the  request  was 
repeated,  and  that  the  patience  of  the  government 
of  Geneva  was  sorely  tried.  In  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury there  was  such  a  thing  as  having  a  pastor  and 
professor  who  was  too  much  in  demand. 

For  there  was  one  thing  upon  which  friends  and 
foes  were  in  full  agreement :  both  assigned  to  Theo- 
dore Beza,  with  signal  unanimity,  the  foremost  place 


Haag,  La  France  Prot.,  ii.,  513. 
210 


1562]  Counsellor  of  Conde  2 1 1 

among  Protestants  for  eloquence.  Claude  Haton, 
the  prejudiced  but  discriminating  curate  whose 
memoirs  are  among  the  most  readable  papers  of  the 
century  and  well  reflect  public  sentiment  on  nearly 
every  point,  proclaimed  him  the  most  highly  es- 
teemed of  all  the  preachers  of  France  for  his  fair 
words,  more  than  for  his  learning/  To  have  con- 
ceded the  superiority  in  learning  also,  would  have 
seemed  to  the  ecclesiastic  a  species  of  endorsement 
of  Beza's  success  at  Poissy. 

The  people,  making  no  such  distinction,  flocked 
to  the  Huguenot  services  to  hear  him.  On  the  very 
day  and  at  almost  the  precise  hour  that  the  Duke  of 
Guise  entered  Paris,  despite  the  queen-mother's 
prohibition.  Prince  Conde  was  accompanying  the 
Huguenot  minister,  with  a  body-guard  of  four  or  five 
hundred  horsemen  (others  said  more),  to  a  preaching 
place  beyond  the  Porte  Saint  Jacques,  where  he 
discoursed  to  a  crowded  gathering.  The  papal 
nuncio,  Cardinal  Santa  Croce,  writing  to  the  Pope's 
minister,  Cardinal  Borromeo,  the  next  day,  found 
in  this  and  similar  occurrences  presages  of  evil  to 
come.^  For,  as  the  nuncio  never  tired  of  reiterating 
at  the  French  court,  unless  the  preachers  were  driven 
from  the  kingdom,  all  other  precautions  would  be  of 
little  avail  for  the  rescue  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
cause. ^ 

The  duties  now  devolving  upon  Beza  were  of  the 
most  varied  and  complex  character,  and  the  literary 


'  Mem.  de  Claude  Haton,  i.,  253. 

'^  Santa  Croce  to  Borromeo,  March  19,  1562,     Aymon,  i,,  99. 

'The  same  to  the  same,  March  32,  1562.    Ibid.,  i.,  105, 


212  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

training  which  had  qualified  him  for  dealing  with 
very  different  subjects  was  called  into  constant  re- 
quisition. As  a  Christian  minister,  who  was  also 
the  most  highly  trusted  friend  of  Conde,  he  was  at 
one  moment  occupied  in  consulting  for  the  best  in- 
terests of  religion  and  morality  in  the  Huguenot 
camp,  at  another  in  justifying  to  friends  and  foes 
the  course  of  the  prince  and  his  associates.  The 
tergiversation  of  Antoine  of  Navarre  had  made  the 
position  of  his  queen,  brave  Jeanne  d'Albret,  a 
difficult  one  at  court;  it  had  also  made  the  attitude 
of  the  Huguenots  to  the  wife  of  their  new  opponent 
by  no  means  simple.  It  was  soon  reported  to  the 
Queen  of  Navarre  that  the  Protestant  soldiers  in 
their  camp  had  dropped  all  references  to  her  hus- 
band from  the  petitions  which,  as  dutiful  subjects, 
they  were  wont  to  utter  in  behalf  of  the  King  of 
France  and  the  princes  of  royal  blood.  We  have  a 
noble  letter  in  which  Theodore  Beza,  replying  to  a 
communication  from  Jeanne,  who  complained  of  this 
omission,  as  well  as  of  the  iconoclasm  of  the  Hugue- 
not troops,  espouses  the  cause  of  his  brethren  with 
manly  frankness  and  firmness,  yet  also  with  respect 
and  true  affection.  A  few  sentences  alone  can  here 
be  given  of  a  paper  that  deserves  to  be  reproduced 
entire.  The  Reformer  does  not  conceal  his  aversion 
to  the  prevalent  image  worship,  but  neither  does  he 
permit  this  aversion  to  prevail  over  his  love  of  law 
and  order. 

**  As  to  the  first  point,  Madam,  respecting  which  you 
were  pleased  to  write  me,"  wrote  Beza,  "  I  can  say  no- 


1-62]  Counsellor  of  Conde  213 

thi  \g  about  this  overthrowing  of  images,  except  what  I 
ha\  I  always  felt  and  preached:  that  is  to  say,  that  this 
mode  of  action  does  not  please  me  at  all,  inasmuch  as 
it  seems  to  me  to  have  no  foundation  in  the  Word  of 
God,  and  as  it  is  to  be  feared  that  it  proceeds  rather 
from'  impetuosity  than  from  zeal.  Nevertheless,  be- 
cause the  deed  itself  is  in  accordance  with  the  will  of 
God,  who  condemns  idols  and  idolatry,  and  because  it 
seems  as  if,  in  so  widespread  a  movement,  there  were 
some  secret  counsel  of  God,  who,  it  may  be,  intends  by 
this  means  to  put  to  shame  the  greatest  by  means  of  the 
smallest,  I  content  myself  with  reprehending  in  general 
what  is  deserving  of  reprehension,  and  with  moderating 
such  impetuous  procedures  as  much  as  it  lies  in  my 
power.  But  that  destruction  of  the  monuments  of  the 
dead  is  entirely  inexcusable,  and  I  can  assure  you. 
Madam,  that  the  prince  is  fully  resolved  not  only  to 
make  the  most  thorough  investigation,  but  also  to  inflict 
such  punishment  as  may  serve  as  an  example  to  others. 

•'  As  to  the  last  point  in  your  letter,     ...     I  shall 
tell  you  frankly  what  I  think  and  what  attitude  all  the 
Churches  of  these  regions  take.     So  long  as  the  king  your 
husband  gave  evidence  of  the  fear  of  God,  he  was  named 
with  you  in  the  public  prayers,  because  of  the  hope  that 
was  entertained  that  he  would  improve  little  by  little,  as 
so  often  he  professed  his  purpose  to  do.     Subsequently, 
when  it  was  seen  that  he  was  banding  together  with  the 
enemies  of  God,  still  we  did  not  cease  to  make  supplica- 
tions for  him  by  name  in  the  prayers  of  the  Church;  and 
this  with  so  much  the  more  ardour  as  we  foresaw  the  dan- 
ger of  ruin  to  be  greater  and  more  evident.     This  lasted 
until,  to  our  great  regret,  he  so  burst  all  bounds  as  not 
only  to  scandalise  the  Church,  but,  what  is  worse,   to 
proclaim   himself   head   and   protector   of    those    whose 


^14  Theodore  Beza  [1510- 

hands  are  reeking  with  the  blood  of  the  children  of  G')d, 
of  those  who  have  always  professed  themselves  the  per- 
secutors and  desperate  enemies  of  the  latter.  You  may 
believe,  Madam,  that  it  was  not  without  deep  anguish  that 
we  heard  and  witnessed  this  piteous  change,  and  that  we 
were  brought  to  this  point.  For  how  could  we  pray 
against  the  enemies  of  God  and  His  Church,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  name  one  of  the  chief  enemies  among  those 
persons  whom  we  hold  in  highest  esteem  ?  Yet  would  I 
not  come  to  the  point  of  pronouncing  a  final  sentence  of 
rejection,  for  there  are  those  who  have  drawn  very  near 
to  that  point  who  yet  have  received  grace  and  mercy. 
As  for  myself,  although  I  see  in  him  at  present  more 
evidence  of  rejection  than  of  salvation,  yet  am  I  unwilling 
to  determine  what  God  has  counselled  for  the  future, 
according  to  the  riches  of  His  great  mercies,  and  I  am 
content  to  be  ignorant  of  what  God  has  concealed, 
rather  than  too  rashly  condemn  the  sinner  with  his  sin. 
I  have  not  therefore  removed  him  from  the  prayers,  as 
though  cutting  him  off  for  ever  from  the  Church,  but  his 
name  has  merely  been  omitted  from  the  place  where  he 
was  mentioned  for  the  aforegoing  reasons.  Yet  nothing 
prevents  his  being  comprehended  under  the  general 
designation  of  '  the  princes  of  the  blood,'  whom  we  con- 
join with  the  king  in  special  respect.  Otherwise  you 
would  have  far  greater  occasion  to  complain  than  he; 
for  it  has  seemed  indecorous  to  name  you  without  him, 
and  I  see  that  the  greater  number  [of  worshippers],  in 
order  to  cover  the  matter  in  some  fashion,  omit  mention 
of  you  also.  And  yet  I  am  as  certain  as  that  I  shall  die, 
that  your  memory,  Madam,  is  as  precious  and  dear  to  all 
the  Churches  of  God  as  that  of  any  person  in  this  world." 

These  words  would  seem  to  have  been  penned 


1562] 


Counsellor  of  Conde  2 1 5 


shortly  after  a  narrow  escape  of  Beza  from  falling 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  to  which  he  alludes 
near  the  close  of  his  letter. 

*'  I  came  near  being  surprised  on  my  return  from 
Angers,"  he  writes,  "  and,  from  what  I  learn,  the  king 
your  husband,  Madam,  must  have  written  expressly  on 
the  subject  with  threats  little  befitting  the  service  which 
all  my  life  long  I  have  desired  to  render  him.  Praised 
be  God,  who  delivered  me  from  this  danger,  showing 
me  in  very  deed  that  it  is  better  to  serve  Him  than  to 
serve  men.  But  I  protest  before  my  God,  that  this  has 
not  changed  my  affection,  and  that  I  would  not  bemoan 
my  death  to-day,  were  it  to  conduce  to  his  salvation."  ^ 

Very  different  in  style  was  the  document  which 
Beza  was  perhaps  at  this  very  moment  preparing  for 
publication  in  the  name  of  the  Prince  of  Conde,  and 
which  was  given  to  the  world  a  week  later. 

The  three  leading  Roman  Catholic  noblemen, 
having  fully  determined  to  precipitate  a  civil  war, 
ostensibly  for  the  purpose  of  hindering  the  further 
progress  of  Protestantism,  but  in  reality  so  as  to 
secure  for  themselves  the  undisputed  mastery,  had 
just  presented  to  the  crown  their  exorbitant  demands 
in  the  form  of  two  petitions,  of  one  and  the  same 
date,  and  constituting  in  effect  a  single  document. 
The  contents  were  sufficiently  radical  to  satisfy  the 
most  bigoted  friend  of  the  old  order  of  things.  Ig- 
noring altogether  the  recent  tolerant  edict  of  the  king, 
the  subscribers  stipulated  that  the  exercise  of  any 


^  Beza  to  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  May  13,  1562.     Me7n.  dc  Qond^y 
ii-.  359-363- 


2t6  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

other  religion  than  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Apos- 
tolic religion  be  interdicted  in  France  by  a  perpetual 
and  irrevocable  law,  and  that  all  royal  officers,  of 
whatever  kind,  be  compelled  to  conform  to  that  re- 
lia;ion  or  else  leave  the  realm.  Churches  that  had 
been  seized  and  damaged  must  be  restored  and  re- 
paired, the  sacrilegious  must  be  punished,  all  that 
had  taken  up  arms  without  authority  from  the  King 
of  Navarre  must  lay  them  down  or  be  pronounced 
rebels.  If  all  this  were  done,  they  professed  them- 
selves ready  to  retire  from  the  kingdom,  in  fact,  to 
go  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  They  would  not  even 
require  as  a  condition  that  Conde  should  participate 
in  their  exile,  nay,  they  would  prefer  to  have  him 
return  to  the  royal  court,  where,  doubtless,  he  would 
deport  himself  in  a  manner  worthy  of  a  prince  of  the 
blood  royal.'  In  other  words,  should  the  prince  dis- 
miss all  the  Protestant  troops  that  were  flocking  to 
his  standard,  he  was  welcome  to  make  a  fresh  trial 
of  the  perils  that  await  the  credulous  man  who  risks 
his  neck  upon  the  good  faith  and  promises  of  invet- 
erate enemies,  Only  the  opportune  decease  of 
Francis  II.  had  saved  Conde's  life  at  Orleans,  a  little 
over  two  years  since ;  he  was  now  invited  to  find 
out  by  a  new  experience  whether  Heaven  would  a 
second  time  interfere  as  signally  in  his  behalf. 

We  can  scarcely  suspect  the  Duke  of  Guise,  Con- 
stable Montmorency,  and  Marshal  Saint  Andre  of 
such  simplicity  as  to  imagine  that  they  could  impose 
upon  the  Prince  of  Conde;  but  they  had  hopes  of 
imposing  upon  the  people  by  their  cheap  display  of 

1  M^m,  d^  Coiid^,  iii.,  392, 


[562] 


Counsellor  of  Conde  21 


magnanimity.  It  required  a  skilful  hand  to  defeat 
their  purpose,  and  certain  it  is  that  Conde  had  at 
his  command  no  more  skilful  hand  than  that  of 
Theodore  Beza.  The  reply  which  went  out  to  the 
world  in  the  name  of  Louis  de  Bourbon  was  so  keen 
that  ordinarily  well-informed  contemporaries  such 
as  the  historian  De  Thou,  at  a  loss  to  ascertain  who 
could  have  composed  it,  were  driven  to  the  absurd- 
ity of  conjecturing  that  it  might  have  emanated 
from  the  pen  of  the  shrewd  and  versatile  Bishop 
Montluc,  author  of  some  of  the  ablest  State  papers 
of  the  period. 

The  writer  branded  the  pretended  petition  or 
petitions  of  the  Roman  Catholic  leaders  as  an  arrog- 
ant assumption  of  authority  that  in  no  sense  belonged 
to  them.  What  they  had  put  forth  was  in  point  of 
fact  not  a  petition  but  a  decree,  made  by  the  duke, 
the  constable,  and  the  marshal,  with  the  cooperation 
of  the  legate,  the  nuncio,  and  the  Spanish  ambassa- 
dor. The  league  they  had  formed  was  more  full  of 
danger  and  more  sanguinary  than  that  of  Sulla,  or 
that  of  Csesar,  or  that  of  the  Triumvirate  of  Rome. 
Its  authors  had  refused  to  obey  the  queen's  com- 
mands and  retire  to  their  governments.  They  had 
come  to  Paris  in  arms,  contrary  to  her  express  com- 
mands; and  no  prayer  of  hers  or  of  the  young  king 
could  induce  them  to  leave  the  capital.  They  had 
forcibly  brought  Catharine  and  Charles  from  Fon- 
tainebleau  to  Melun,  and  from  Melun  to  Paris. 
Such  was  the  reverence  and  humility  of  which  they 
prated;  while  the  love  they  pretended  to  bear  to 
their  country  did  not  prevent  them  from  calling  in 


2i8  Theodore  Beza 


[1519- 


foreign  arms  to  plunder  it  and,  if  God  did  not  pre- 
vent, to  subdue  and  ruin  it. 

"  And  then,"  wrote  Beza  in  Conde's  name,  **  they 
demand  a  perpetual  edict  to  settle  matters  of  religion; 
and  when  we  ask  for  the  maintenance  of  the  edict  that 
has  been  made  until  the  king's  majority,  they  tell  us  that 
this  is  an  uncivil  and  unreasonable  demand;  that  it  is 
the  prerogative  of  the  king,  when  it  seems  good  to  him, 
to  change,  limit,  amplify,  and  restrict  his  edicts;  and 
that  when  we  ask  of  him  that  what  has  already  been 
ordained  by  him  and  his  council  be  kept  and  maintained 
during  his  minority,  we  wish  to  keep  his  Majesty  in 
prison  and  captivity.  Meanwhile  they  want  the  edict 
which  they  three  have  framed  to  be  perpetual  and  ir- 
revocable. If  the  reason  alleged  by  them  against  us  is 
to  be  received,  for  that  same  reason  we  shall  conclude 
that  they  themselves  wish  to  detain  the  king  a  prisoner 
both  in  his  minority  and  in  his  majority,  nay,  we  are 
warranted  in  saying  that  they  think  that  they  can  lord  it 
over  not  merely  the  person  of  the  king,  but  over  the 
whole  realm,  since  in  a  matter  of  so  great  importance 
and  involving  such  consequences,  they  dare  present  an 
ordinance  authorised  by  but  three  persons.  What  more 
did  ever  Augustus,  Mark  Antony,  and  Lepidus,  when  by 
their  wicked  and  infamous  Triumvirate  they  overturned 
the  laws  and  the  Roman  commonwealth  ?  Had  they 
been  moved  by  honest  zeal,  as  they  assert,  by  a  peaceable 
and  not  a  seditious  zeal,  by  a  zeal  for  religion  and  not 
for  ambition,  they  would  not  have  begun  by  active 
measures.  They  would  have  come  unarmed,  they  would 
have  presented  themselves  with  humility  and  reverence; 
they  would  have  set  forth  the  causes  that  moved  them  to 
disapprove  of  th^  Edict  of  January;    they  would  very 


1562]  Counsellor  of  Conde  219 

humbly  have  begged  the  king  and  queen  to  examine,  in 
conjunction  with  their  council,  with  the  advice  of  the 
parliaments,  and  the  other  estates,  whether  by  some 
other  means  a  remedy  might  be  found  for  the  troubles, 
to  the  preservation  of  the  honour  of  God,  and  of  the 
security  and  greatness  of  the  king  and  kingdom.  Had 
they  thus  spoken,  they  would  have  shown  that  they  were 
inspired  by  no  other  passion  than  the  zeal  of  their  con- 
sciences. As  it  is,  their  course  of  action  sufficiently  re- 
veals the  fact  that  religion  serves  them  only  as  a  means 
to  secure  a  following  and  to  introduce  division  among 
the  king's  subjects.  With  one  portion  and  in  conjunc- 
tion with  foreigners,  they  purpose  to  make  themselves 
masters  and  lords  of  everything.  To  them  I  am  con- 
strained to  say  that  the  princes  of  the  blood,  whose 
enemies  they  have  always  been  and  whom  they  have  ever 
driven  into  the  background,  so  far  as  they  were  able,  will 
not  suffer  foreigners  and  persons  not  called  to  the  govern- 
ment, to  take  it  upon  themselves  to  make  edicts  and 
ordinances  in  this  kingdom.  Yet  they  want  and  demand 
that  the  Romish  religion,  which  they  call  Catholic  and 
Apostolic,  alone  be  established  and  recognised  in  France, 
and  that  preaching  and  the  sacraments  be  forbidden  to 
the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  religion.  It  is  a  Duke  of 
Guise,  a  foreign  prince,  a  Sieur  de  Montmorency,  and  a 
Sieur  de  Saint  Andre,  who  enact  an  ordinance  contrary 
to  the  Edict  of  January,  accorded  by  the  king  and  the 
queen  his  mother,  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  princes  of 
the  blood,  with  the  king's  council  and  forty  of  the 
greatest  and  most  notable  personages  of  all  the  parlia- 
ments. It  is  these  three  that  draw  up  a  law  against  the 
petition  presented  by  the  States,  that  is  to  say,  the 
nobles  and  Third  Estate  at  Orleans  and,  later,  at  Saint 
Germain;  both  of  which  estates  petitioned  the  king  tc" 


2  20  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

be  pleased  to  grant  places  of  worship  to  the  adherents  of 
the  Reformed  religion.  These  three  make  an  ordinance 
that  cannot  be  executed  without  a  civil  war,  without 
putting  the  kingdom  in  danger  of  evident  ruin.  This 
they  themselves  see  and  admit.  And  this  is  the  way  the 
kingdom  stands  indebted  to  them,  and  this  is  the  fruit 
born  of  their  wisdom  and  good  zeal,  or,  to  speak  more 
properly,  of  their  intrigues,  underhand  practices,  and 
ambition  to  rule." 

With  such  words  did  Beza  make  the  Prince  of 
Conde  to  characterise  the  new  Triumvirs,  while 
defending  the  cause  which  these  Triumvirs  had  con- 
spired to  overthrow.  Again,  as  in  his  letter  over 
his  own  signature  to  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  being 
compelled  to  touch  upon  the  iconoclasm  out  of 
which  the  enemies  of  the  Protestants  made  so  great 
an  accusation,  he  dwelt  upon  the  efforts  that  had 
been  conscientiously  put  forth  to  check  and  punish 
the  practice,  and  again  he  contrasted  the  fault,  as 
fault  it- undeniably  was,  of  destroying  lifeless  statues 
in  stone,  with  the  far  more  heinous  crime  of  ruth- 
lessly destroying  the  persons  of  men  and  women 
made  in  the  likeness  of  God. 

"  If  the  breaking  of  images  merits  punishment,  as  I 
fully  believe  it  does — inasmuch  as  the  act  is  committed 
contrary  to  the  king's  ordinance, — what  punishment  do 
those  expect  who  cloak  themselves  so  readily  with  the 
king's  name,  for  the  murders  that  have  been  committed 
by  themselves  and,  following  their  example  and  at  their 
solicitation,  at  Vassy,  at  Sens,  at  Castelnaudary,  and  at 
Angers — where  it  is  well  known  that  five  hundred  men 


1562]  Counsellor  of  Conde  221 

and  women  have  been  slain  for  no  other  reason  than 
their  religion  ?  He  that  dictated  the  *  petition  '  should 
have  examined  his  own  conscience  and  have  recognised 
the  fact  that  it  is  not  found  that  the  lifeless  image  has 
ever  cried  for  vengeance;  but  the  blood  of  man,  who  is 
the  living  image  of  God,  cries  for  it  to  Heaven,  and  calls 
it  down,  and  brings  it,  even  though  it  tarry  long." 

To  the  suggestion  that  Conde  and  those  who  were 
in  arms  with  him  ought  to  be  declared  rebels,  the 
prince  was  made  to  respond  that  this  was  an  article 
that  called  for  a  reply  in  another  way  than  in  writing. 
He  hoped,  he  said,  within  a  few  days,  to  go  in  search 
of  those  that  made  the  assertion,  and  settle  by  arms 
the  question,  whether  it  belonged  to  a  foreigner  and 
two  insignificant  persons  such  as  they  were,  to  judge 
a  prince  of  the  blood  and  two  thirds  of  the  noble- 
men of  the  kingdom,  and  pronounce  them  to  be 
rebels  and  enemies  of  the  kingdom. 

Finally,  in  a  passage  of  great  beauty  and  oratori- 
cal force,  the  prince  was  made  by  Beza  to  institute  a 
startling  contrast  between  the  demand  of  the  new 
Triumvirs  and  that  which  he  himself  made  : 

*'  I  ask  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Edict  of  January, 
and  they  wish  of  their  own  authority  to  annul  and  abolish 
it.  They  ask  for  the  destruction  of  an  infinite  number 
of  houses,  as  well  of  the  nobles  as  of  the  common  peo- 
ple; I  ask  and  desire  that  all  the  king's  subjects,  of 
whatever  quality  they  may  be,  shall  be  upheld,  protected 
in  their  estates  and  property,  and  preserved  from  all  in- 
sult and  violence.  They  wish  to  exterminate  all  the 
adherents  of  the  Reformed  religion;  and  I  desire  that 


222  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

we  may  be  reserved  to  the  time  when  the  king  shall  reach 
his  majority  (at  which  time  we  will  obey  what  he  shall 
be  pleased  to  command  us),  and  that  meanwhile  the  ad- 
herents of  the  Romish  Church  shall  not  be  disturbed, 
molested,  or  constrained  in  their  property  or  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  charges.  They  demand  an  armed  force  to 
execute  what  they  have  undertaken,  and  do  not  consider 
that  they  will  compel  an  infinite  number  of  worthy  people 
to  defend  themselves.  They  do  not  take  into  considera- 
tion the  scarcity  of  the  means  at  their  disposal,  nor  regard 
the  troubles  and  the  ruin  that  civil  war  brings.  What  is 
worse,  they  have  engaged  in  writing  to  introduce  foreign 
arms,  which  means,  in  plain  talk,  to  give  the  kingdom  to 
be  the  prey  of  its  enemies.  On  the  contrary,  I  do  not 
ask  to  retain  my  arms,  I  do  not  make  use  of  the  king's 
money,  I  do  not  call  foreigners  to  enter  the  kingdom, 
and  have  declined  those  offered  to  me.  God  is  my  wit- 
ness that  I  have  begged  them  not  to  come  and  to  prevent 
others  from  coming,  either  for  or  against  us.  .  .  . 
They  demand  that  we  be  declared  rebels;  they  demand 
our  lives,  our  honour,  and  our  consciences.  We  demand 
nothing  whatever  of  their  lives,  their  honour,  their  prop- 
erty, or -their  consciences,  nor  wish  them  any  other  ill 
save  that  to  which  we  are  willing  to  bind  ourselves — 
which  is,  that  they  and  we  withdraw  to  our  houses,  and 
this  according  to  the  conditions  more  fully  set  forth  in 
our  Declarations  and  Protestations  heretofore  made  and 
sent  to  the  king  and  queen." 

Such  was  the  tenor  and  such  were  a  few  points  of 
the  noble  document  wherein  the  brilliant  Genevese 
Reformer  supplied  the  young  Prince  of  Conde  with  a 
(defence  clear  and  convincing  to  every  dispassionate 


1562]  Counsellor  of  Conde  223 

reader,  if,  in  those  exciting  times,  any  dispassionate 
readers  were  still  to  be  found.' 

A  recital  of  the  incidents  of  this  eventful  war  do 
not  belong  here.  The  reader  must  look  elsewhere 
for  the  massacres  on  the  one  side  and  the  reprisals 
on  the  other,  for  the  wearisome  tale  of  acts  of  un- 
necessary cruelty  and  brutality,  for  the  blunders 
almost  surpassing  belief  committed  by  men  who  es- 
teemed themselves  and  were  regarded  by  others  as 
wise  and  prudent.  Contrary  to  his  expectations, 
Beza  was  detained  with  the  army  at  Orleans,  where 
he  took  a  part  in  drawing  up  that  remarkable  set  of 
articles  regulating  the  discipline  and  morals  of  the 
army,  which  w^as  intended  to  make  Huguenot  war- 
fare a  model  for  all  future  generations,  but  which  in 
reality  lasted  barely  a  couple  of  months.  The  daily 
prayers  and  the  frequent  preaching  in  the  prince's 
presence  devolved  upon  him,  but  was  the  small- 
est part  of  his  duties.  It  was  not  forgotten  that 
he  was  no  novice  in  diplomacy,  and  when  Ad- 
miral Coligny's  youngest  brother,  Andelot,  was  de- 
spatched to  levy  troops  in  Germany  as  auxiliaries 
to  the  depleted  army  of  the  prince  at  Orleans,  it 
was  natural  that  Beza  should  be  thought  of  as  of  all 
men  the  most  likely  to  succeed  in  securing  the 
favour  of  the  German  princes  with  whom  he  had 
treated  when  pleading  the  cause  of  the  persecuted 
Waldensesof  Piedmont  and  the  victims  of  calumny 
and  judicial  murder  in  Paris.  His  visit  to  the  banks 
of  the  Rhine  and  to  Switzerland  afforded  him  an 
opportunity  to  go  to  Geneva  and  confer  with  Calvin. 

'  In  the  M^m.  de  Conde,  iii.,  395-416. 


224  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

It  did  not  permit  him  to  resume  his  cherished  duties 
at  the  University  and  in  the  church  of  Saint  Pierre. 
His  allotted  place  was  evidently  still  in  France  and 
with  his  brethren  who  were  there  fighting  against 
almost  overwhelming  odds  and  never  more  in  need 
of  a  clear-headed,  far-sighted  counsellor,  a  faithful, 
energetic,  and  untiring  man  of  affairs.  Beza's  leave 
of  absence,  even  with  the  renewal  which  had  been 
granted,  had  long  since  run  out.  But  when  Calvin 
added  his  solicitations  to  Beza's  exposition  of  the 
critical  condition  of  Protestantism  in  France,  the 
syndics  and  council  of  the  republic  were  forced  to 
see  that  the  interests  of  the  Reformation  every- 
where were  involved  in  their  decision,  and  preferred 
the  general  good  to  the  convenience  of  Geneva.  In 
doing  so,  they  recognised  the  fact  that  new  respons- 
ibilities had  been  thrown  upon  Beza,  and  that,  in 
view  of  his  great  administrative  abilities,  he  had 
been  compelled  to  assume  an  ofidce  scarcely  less  im- 
portant than  that  of  a  military  commander,  since  it 
had  to  do  with  the  supply  and  control  of  the  sinews 
of  war.  The  minute  of  their  action,  which  is  still  ex- 
tant, is  as  honourable  to  their  disinterestedness  as  to 
Beza's  tried  integrity  of  character. 

"  Monsieur  de  Beze,"  the  record  states,  "  being  called 
to  France  not  only  as  a  minister,  but  also  as  treasurer, 
the  Council  and  the  ministers  have  found  themselves  in 
great  embarrassment,  reflecting,  on  the  one  side,  upon 
the  great  need  we  have  of  so  great  a  man  and  upon  the 
dangers  which  he  may  run,  and,  on  the  other,  upon  the 
desolation  of  the  Church  and  the  comfort  he  will  admin- 
ister to  her,  and  upon  the  unseemliness  of  discouraging, 


1562]  Counsellor  of  Conde  225 

by  a  refusal  to  let  him  go,  those  who  are  with  so  much 
valour  and  firmness  defending  the  cause  of  the  Gospel, 
and  of  incurring  notable  reproaches  at  their  hands. 
Finally,  we  have  judged  that  we  ought  not  to  have  our 
own  particular  interest  so  much  at  heart,  as  the  advance- 
ment of  God's  kingdom  and  glory;  and  the  said  Beza 
has  been  permitted  to  act  as  he  shall  deem  fit."  ^ 

After  his  return  to  France,  Beza  was  present  at 
the  battle  of  Dreux,  and  witnessed  the  defeat  and 
capture  of  the  Prince  of  Conde,  singularly  enough 
offset  in  the  same  battle  by  the  capture  of  Marshal 
Montmorency,  the  commanding  general  of  the 
Roman  Catholics,  and  the  death  of  Marshal  Saint 
Andre,  a  second  of  the  so-called  "  Triumvirs." 
That  inveterate  calumniator,  Claude  de  Sainctes, 
who  will  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  disputants  at 
the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  accused  the  Reformer,  some 
years  later,  of  hdiYmg fought  in  that  engagement; 
an  assertion  which  Beza  denied. 

**  I  was  certainly  present  at  the  battle,  both  at  the  be- 
ginning and  the  end  (why  should  I  not,  having  been  duly 
called  there  ?),  and,  indeed,  which  you  may  wonder  at 
more,  dressed  in  my  cloak  and  not  armed,  nor  may  any- 
one cast  in  my  teeth  either  the  slaying  of  anybody  or 
flight.'" 

The  first  civil  war  lasted  two  or  three  months 
more.  Its  conclusion  was  hastened  by  a  tragic 
event.     Duke    Francis  of   Guise,   while   inspecting 

'  State  Records  of  Geneva,  September  21,  1562,  in  Baum,  ii.,  699. 

'"Ad  F.  Claudii  de  Xaintes  Responsionem  Altera  Th.  Bezae 
Apologia"  (reprinted  in  Tract.  Theol.,  ii.,  362),  a  pamphlet  first 
published  in  Geneva,  in  1567. 


226  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  works  by  means  of  which  he  seemed  about 
to  capture  the  city  of  Orleans,  then  held  by  the 
Huguenots,  was  treacherously  shot  by  a  miscreant 
named  Poltrot,  and  died  within  six  days.  By  whom 
the  assassin  had  been  instigated  to  the  deed  is  even 
now  uncertain.  After  at  first  glorying  in  his  act,  he 
broke  down  through  fear  of  death  and  accused 
Admiral  Coligny,  Beza,  M.  de  Soubise,  and  others. 
Subsequently  he  retracted  his  statements  and  de- 
clared them  to  be  false ;  but  while  suffering  his  hor- 
rible sentence  and  being  torn  asunder  by  four 
horses,  he  again  returned  to  his  improbable  story. 
Admiral  Coligny  and  all  those  whom  he  had  accused 
denied  with  the  greatest  solemnity  that  they  had 
prompted  the  assassin  to  commit  his  dastardly 
action.  With  others  we  have  nothing  to  do. 
Theodore  Beza  said  that,  so  far  from  having  coun- 
selled the  man,  he  had  never,  to  the  best  of  his 
knowledge,  laid  eyes  upon  him.^  All  fair-minded 
men  cleared  him,  and  most  men  held  the  crack- 
brained  assailant  of  Guise  to  be  a  wild  enthusiast 
whom  fancied  personal  wrongs  or  the  wrongs  of  his 
party  had  led  to  seek  vengeance  for  himself. 

At  the  expiration  of  hostilities  Beza  returned  to 
Geneva  and  resumed  the  functions  he  had  been 
compelled  to  intermit  for  about  a  year  and  a  half. 
To  the  admiration  which  he  had  aroused  in  friends 
and  foes  alike,  he  had  added  the  strong  affection 
and  confidence  of  all  the  French  Huguenots  won  by 
his  arduous  and  disinterested  services  in  their  behalf. 

Of  dangers  incurred  there  had  been  no  lack.     For 


Ibid.^  ubi  supra. 


FROM    A    PRINT    BY    THERET. 
FROM    AN    ENGRAVING    IN    THE    PRINT-ROOM,    BRITISH    MUSEUM. 


1563]  Return  to  Geneva  227 

just  in  proportion  as  his  friends  had  come  to  love 
and  rely  upon  him,  so  had  the  enemies  of  Protest- 
antism, within  and  without  the  kingdom,  come  to 
hate  him  as  the  most  redoubtable  of  opponents. 
That  they  invented  falsehoods  respecting  him  was 
nothing  strange;  it  was  Beza's  experience  to  the 
very  end  of  his  days.  On  the  present  occasion  the 
fabrication  was  a  rumour  that  obtained  wide  cur- 
rency to  the  effect  that  Beza  and  Calvin  had  had  so 
violent  a  quarrel  that  the  former  did  not  dare  to 
return  to  Geneva!  In  the  full  belief  that  the  story 
was  true,  the  Duchess  of  Parma,  Spanish  Regent  of 
the  Low  Countries,  thinking  it  likely  that  Beza 
might  wend  his  way  to  Holland  or  Germany, 
secretly  ordered  the  frontiers  to  be  watched  and 
offered  a  reward  of  one  thousand  florins  for  Beza's 
capture,  dead  or  alive.  The  Reformer  was  portrayed 
as  a  man  of  medium  stature,  with  a  high  and  broad 
face,  and  a  beard  that  was  half  grey/ 


^  Rise  of  the  Huguenots ^  ii.,  388. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

BEZA    SUCCEEDS    CALVIN — HE    EDITS    THE    GREEK 
NEW   TESTAMENT 

THE  public  records  of  Geneva  bear  witness  to  the 
general  joy  and  thanksgiving  to  God  that  were 
felt  and  expressed  at  the  safe  return  of  Theodore 
Beza  after  his  long  and  eventful  absence.  He 
reached  his  home  on  May  5,  1563.  It  was  therefore 
over  twenty  months  since  he  had  set  out  upon  his 
important  mission,  full  of  courage,  but  not  blind  to 
the  dangers  of  the  enterprise.  Within  two  days  of 
his  arrival,  a  minute  appears  on  the  registers  of  the 
Council,  to  the  effect  that  **  great  thanks,  and  offers 
of  every  kind  of  service,  have  been  received  from 
all  the  French  Protestant  lords,  for  the  great  and 
important  services  which  Monsieur  de  Beze  has 
rendered  to  them,  as  well  as  to  all  the  churches  of 
the  kingdom."  And  a  strong  light  is  shed  upon  the 
esteem  in  which  the  Reformer  was  held  in  his  adopted 
city,  and  upon  the  reputation  he  had  gained  through 
the  unselfishness  of  his  past  life,  by  a  statement  in 
the  same  documents,  six  days  later  (May  13,  1563), 
that  a  resolution  had  been  passed  voting  to  grant  all 
that  he  may  need  to  Beza — "  le  Spectable  de  Beze," 

228 


T564] 


He  Succeeds  Calvin  229 


in  the  curious  phraseology  of  the  times — "  who 
has  expended  much  money  in  his  travels  and  who 
would  say  nothing  about  it,  even  were  he  in  great 
straits."  ^ 

By  no  one  was  he  more  cordially  welcomed  than 
by  Calvin  himself,  not  an  old  man — for  he  was  not 
yet  fifty-four  years  of  age — but  evidently  fast  near- 
incr  his  end.  The  relation  between  the  two  men 
had  long  been  of  the  closest  and  most  affectionate 
character.  Although  the  difference  of  age  was  only 
ten  years,  Beza  had,  from  the  first  moment  that  he 
set  foot  in  Geneva,  assumed  to  the  older  Reformer 
the  relation  of  a  child  to  his  parent.  Intense  ad- 
miration for  the  wonderful  intellectual  endowments 
of  Calvin  ripened  into  a  love  such  as  can  exist  only 
between  strong  characters  that  think  the  same  great 
thoughts.  Calvin  saw  in  Beza  not  the  slavish  copy 
of  himself,  but  a  scholar  of  greater  polish  and  wider 
knowledge  of  polite  society,  better  capable  of  deal- 
ing with  courts,  with  a  stronger  physical  constitu- 
tion, and  therefore  having  the  promise  of  being  able 
to  accomplish  much  that  was  denied  to  his  own 
enfeebled  health.  The  mutual  discovery  of  their 
respective  qualifications  to  carry  on  different  parts 
of  the  great  work  committed  to  them,  supplement- 
ing each  other,  yet  acting  in  complete  harmony, 
came  early.  It  came  on  Calvin's  part  long  before 
Beza's  stay  at  Lausanne  approached  its  end.  For 
when,  in  1551,  Beza,  having  occupied  his  chair  in  the 
Academie  of  that  city  for  only  two  years,  was  ill  of 
the  pestilence  that  proved  mortal  to  so  many,  and 

^  Minutes  in  Baum,  ii.,  730. 


230  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

vvas  reported  to  be  dying,  Calvin  tells  us  that  he  was 
prostrated  with  anxiety ;  and  this  not  for  himself 
alone,  but  also  and  chiefly  for  the  Church  to  which 
he  felt  him  to  be  so  essential.  "  I  should  not  be  a 
man,"  he  wrote  at  this  time,  "  if  I  did  not  love  him 
who  loves  me  with  more  than  a  brother's  love  and 
honours  me  as  a  father."  ^  Beza's  life  was  merci- 
fully spared  on  that  occasion,  and,  now  that  twelve 
years  of  the  most  confiding  friendship  and  inter- 
change of  views  on  every  important  point  that  could 
interest  intelligent  men  had  passed  over  their  heads, 
the  love  was  still  more  intense. 

But  a  return  to  the  precise  relations  subsisting 
between  the  two  men  before  Beza  went  to  France 
was  now  impossible,  so  rapidly  had  Calvin's  health 
failed.  He  must  assume  the  heavier  of  Calvin's 
burdens,  while  waiting  for  the  dreaded  moment 
when,  with  Calvin's  death,  he  must  attempt  to  bear 
them  alone. 

It  is  a  notable  circumstance  connected  with  the 
period  of  the  world's  history  of  which  we  are  treat- 
ing, that  it  gave  birth  to  a  horde  of  writers  not 
merely  lovers  of  scandal  but  authors  of  impudent 
calumny  against  whose  envenomed  pen  the  reputa- 
tion of  no  prominent  champion  of  the  so-called 
"  new  doctrines  "  was  safe,  either  as  to  great  mat- 
ters or  as  to  small.  Beza's  antagonist  at  Poissy,  the 
monk  Claude  de  Sainctes,  was  of  this  type.  Among 
his  many  inventions,  he  was  not  ashamed  to  assert 
that,  so  far  from  having  been  selected  by  Calvin  to 
be  his  successor,  Beza,   in  his  inordinate  ambition 


Letter  of  June  30,  1551.      Calvini  Op.,  xiv.,  144,  145. 


1564]  He  Succeeds  Calvin  231 

and  rapacity,  scarcely  waited  for  Calvin's  removal 
from  the  earth  to  foist  himself  upon  the  Church  and 
State  of  Geneva.  Beza's  reply  to  this  fabrication  is, 
as  usual,  dignified  and  crushing. 

**  There  was  no  one  in  this  city  at  that  time,"  he 
writes,  "  who  did  not  know  that  when,  at  length,  I  had 
returned  home  from  your  slaughter-house,  that  is,  from 
the  first  civil  war,  and  when  illness  precluded  Calvin's 
presence  at  our  gatherings  and  especially  at  the  meetings 
of  the  presbyters,  I  was  designated,  by  the  request  of 
all  my  colleagues  and  of  Calvin  himself,  who  urged  me  to 
accept  when  I  declined  to  do  so,  to  sustain  a  portion  of 
his  load.  And  this  also  does  everybody  know,  and  the 
whole  Council  first  of  all,  that,  when  Calvin  died,  it  was 
only  unwillingly  and  with  reluctance  that  I  took  upon  my 
shoulders  this  load;  that  in  this  matter  I  was  moved  by 
no  consideration  more  than  by  Calvin's  own  will,  ex- 
pressed while  he  was  yet  alive;  and  that  I  accepted  it  on 
no  other  condition  but  that  at  the  end  of  the  year  some- 
one else  should  be  elected.  I  call  God  and  all  my 
brethren  now  to  bear  witness  that  each  successive  year 
I  begged  of  my  colleagues  that  this  should  be  done,  but 
never  obtained  my  request."  ^ 

The  records  of  the  "  Venerable  Company"  prove 
the  truth  of  Beza's  solemn  assertion.  They  tell  us, 
moreover,  that  the  pastors  took  the  precaution  to 
reserve  for  themselves  the  right  of  examining  and, 
if  necessary,  censuring  even  before  the  end  of  the 


^  "  Ad   F.   Claudii    de    Xaintes   Responsionem  Altera  Th,   Bezce 
Apologia,"  TracU  Theol.^  ii.,  360, 


232  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

year  whatever  might  seem  deserving  of  reprobation 
in  the  conduct  of  him  whom  they' continued  to  re- 
gard as  only  the  equal  of  his  brethren. 

"  The  moderator,"  so  the  minutes  read,  "  shall  always 
recall  Monsieur  Calvin,  who,  so  severe  against  the  vicious 
and  the  impious,  never  made  use  of  an  inordinate  author- 
ity in  his  relations  with  his  brethren;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, adapting  himself  so  far  as  possible  to  all,  managed 
to  lighten  the  task  of  each." 

And  so  the  custom  remained  until  1580,  when  a 
more  frequent  renewal  of  the  election  came  into 
vogue.  Even  then  it  was  Beza  himself,  with  the 
support  of  Trembley,  that  urged  a  change  by  which 
each  member  was  in  turn  called  upon  to  preside  at 
the  meetings  for  a  single  week.  The  innovation 
could  not,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  make  any 
diminution  in  some  of  Beza's  other  engrossing  cares, 
especially  such  as  arose  from  his  vastly  extended 
correspondence  with  the  churches  of  all  parts  of 
Protestant  Christendom.'. 

It  fell  to  Beza's  lot,  as  the  friend  upon  whom  the 
mantle  of  the  master  fell,  to  tell  the  story  of  Calvin's 
life  and  death  to  the  world,  and  to  tell  it  promptly. 

Of  Calvin's  works,  the  last  to  be  finished  was  his 
Commentary  on  Joshua.  It  remained  unpublished 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  Beza  brought  the  work 
out  with  a  biography  of  the  author  prefixed,  in  lieu 
of   the  customary  preface    from   the  author's  own 


*  Heppe,  229,  230. 


1564] 


He  Succeeds  Calvin  233 


pen.      It   opened   with   a  few  touching  and  appro- 
priate words. 

*'  Had  it  pleased  God  to  preserve  to  us  longer  His 
faithful  servant,  Mr.  John  Calvin,  or,  rather,  had  not  the 
perversity  of  the  world  moved  the  Lord  to  take  him  to 
Himself  so  soon,  the  present  would  not  be  the  last  of  the 
works  in  which  he  has  so  faithfully  and  happily  busied 
himself  for  the  advancement  of  God's  glory  and  for  the 
edification  of  the  Church.  Nor  would  this  commentary 
issue  without  being  crowned  as  it  were  by  some  excellent 
preface,  like  the  rest.  But  it  has  happened  to  it  as  to 
poor  orphans  who  are  less  highly  favoured  than  their 
brethren,  in  that  their  father  has  left  them  too  early. 
However,  I  see  this  orphan  to  be  sprung  from  so  goodly 
a  house,  thank  God,  and  bearing  so  strong  a  resemblance 
to  his  father,  that  without  any  other  testimony  he  will 
make  himself  not  only  very  agreeable,  but  also  very 
honourable  in  the  eyes  of  all  that  shall  see  it.  For  this 
reason  I  purpose  not  to  recommend  it  by  any  testimony 
of  my  own — what  need  of  it  ? — but  rather  to  lament  with 
it  the  death  of  him  who  has  been  a  common  father  both 
to  it  and  to  me.  For  I  neither  can  nor  ought  I  to 
esteem  him  less  my  father  because  of  what  God  has 
taught  me  through  him,  than  should  this  book  and  so 
many  other  books  for  having  been  written  by  him.  I 
shall  therefore  bewail  my  loss,  but  this  shall  not  be  with- 
out consolation.  For,  as  regards  him  of  whom  I  speak, 
I  should  have  loved  him  too  little  while  alive  here  below, 
if  the  blessedness  into  which  he  is  now  admitted  did  not 
change  my  personal  sadness  into  rejoicing  because  of 
his  gain.  And  I  should  have  derived  little  profit  from 
his  teaching  so  holy  and  admirable,  from  his  life  so  good 
and  upright,  from  his  death  so  happy  and  Christian,  had 


234  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

I  not  been  instructed  by  all  these  means  to  submit  my- 
self to  the  Providence  of  God  with  all  satisfaction  and 
content."  ^ 

A  full  year  had  not  passed  since  Calvin's  death 
when  Beza  gave  to  the  world,  in  1565,  the  most 
notable  of  his  contributions  to  Biblical  science. 
This  was  an  edition  of  the  Greek  text  of  the  New 
Testament,  accompanied  in  parallel  columns  by  two 
translations  into  Latin,  the  one  being  the  text  of  the 
Vulgate,  the  other  an  original  translation  of  his  own. 
This  latter  translation  he  had  published  as  far  back 
as  in  1556.  This  was  the  reason  that  the  present 
work  bore  the  misleading  designation  of  a  second 
edition,  although  it  was  in  reality  the  first  edition 
of  the  Greek  text.  There  were  added  annotations 
which  Beza  had  also  previously  published,  but  which 
on  this  occasion  he  greatly  enriched  and  enlarged. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  edition  of  the  Greek 
text,  but  much  more  in  the  preparation  of  the  second 
edition  of  that  text  which  he  brought  out  seventeen 
years  later  (in  1582),  Beza  might  have  availed  him- 
self of  the  help  of  a  valuable  manuscript  of  great 
antiquity  which  the  fortunes  of  war  threw  into  his 
hands.  The  uncial  now  known  to  the  literary  world 
as  the  "  Codex  Bezse, "  and  briefly  referred  to  by 
the  letter  D,  had  apparently  long  rested  in  the 
library  of  the  Monastery  of  Saint  Irenaeus  at  Lyons. 
It  was  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  made  in  the 
middle   of   the  sixth  century,    and   comprised   the 


^  Life  of  Calvin  in  French,  prefixed  to  Coin,  on  Joshtia.     Repub- 
lished in  (Euvres  Fran^aiscs  d^  Calvin  (ed.  by  Paul  L.  Jacob),  p.  3. 


1565]  Edits  Greek  Testament         '"^ZS 

Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  both  in  Greek 
and  Latin.  In  the  iconoclasm  and  pillage  to  which 
Lyons  was  subjected  by  Huguenot  soldiers  in  the 
first  civil  war,  this  precious  monument  of  antiquity 
was  happily  saved,  and  passed  into  the  possession  of 
Beza.  The  great  Hellenist  undoubtedly  recognised 
its  value,  but  startled,  it  is  said,  by  the  singularity 
of  some  of  its  readings,  made  little  use  of  it  in  the 
preparation  of  his  editions.  When,  after  a  score  of 
years,  the  decline  of  his  powers  warned  him  of  the 
near  approach  of  the  close  of  his  period  of  studious 
productiveness,  he  presented  the  manuscript  to  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  where  it  may  still  be  seen 
among  the  choice  possessions  of  that  seat  of  learning. 
In  a  similar  way,  Beza  had  the  advantage  of  access, 
for  the  latter  part  of  the  New  Testament,  to  the 
text  of  a  second  manuscript  containing  only  that 
portion  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  and  dating  from 
but  a  little  later  in  the  same  sixth  century.  From 
the  circumstance  that  it  had  been  found  by  Beza  in 
Clermont,  this  manuscript,  which  is  now  in  the 
National  Library  at  Paris,  is  known  as  the  **  Codex 
Claromontanus."  ^ 

It  was  not,  however,  to  these  sources  that  Beza 
was  chiefly  indebted,  but  rather  to  the  previous 
edition  of  the  eminent  Robert  Stephens  (1550), 
itself  based  in  great  measure  upon  one  of  the  later 
editions  (the  fourth  or  fifth,  it  is  said)  of  Erasmus. 


'  On  the  "  Codex  Bezae  "  see  vol.  ii.,  No.  i,  of  Texts  and  Studies. 
Study  of  Codex  Bezcr,  by  J.  Rendel  Harris,  Cambridge  University 
Press,  1893.  A  photographic  facsimile  has  been  issued  by  the  same 
press  in  1S98,  I  understand,  which  I  have  not  seen. 


236  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

"  In  order  to  produce  this  entire  work,"  says  Beza 
himself,  in  his  preface,  ''  I  have  compared  with  the  re- 
marks of  a  Valla,  Peter  Stapulensis,  and  Erasmus,  the 
most  learned  writings  both  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Ro- 
mans, as  well  as  the  moderns,  and  I  acknowledge  that  I 
have  often  been  essentially  supported  by  these,  even 
though  I  have  not  made  myself  so  dependent  on  either 
these  or  those  as  not  to  remain  true  to  my  own  judg- 
ment. To  all  this  there  was  added  a  copy  from  the 
library  of  our  Stephens  which  had  been  most  carefully 
collated  by  his  son,  Henry  Stephens  (who  has  inherited 
his  father's  indefatigability),  with  some  five  and  twenty 
manuscripts  and  almost  all  the  printed  editions."  ^ 

The  result  of  Beza's  labours  was  a  new  edition  of 
the  text  of  the  New  Testament  which,  especially  in 
the  improved  form  in  which  it  appeared  in  1582  and 
thereafter,  has  a  recognised  place  of  great  influence 
in  the  history  of  Biblical  study.  That  the  learned 
author  succeeded  in  making  all  the  use  of  his  ma- 
terial, limited  as  it  was,  which  a  modern  scholar 
trained  in  the  rigid  system  now  practised  might 
have  derived  even  from  such  inadequate  apparatus, 
cannot  be  affirmed.  The  rules  of  textual  criticism 
were  of  the  crudest  kind,  and  Beza  himself  would 
seem  at  times  to  have  adhered  with  less  consistency 
than  at  others  to  the  canons  which  he  himself  had 
laid  down.  But  at  least  there  was  progress;  and 
Beza's  labours  in  this  direction  were  exceedingly 
helpful  to  those  that  came  after. 

The  same  thing  may  be  asserted  with  equal  truth 
of  Beza's  Latin  version  and  of  the  copious  notes 

'  See  Heppe,  362. 


1565]  Edits  Greek  Testament  237 

with  which  it  was  accompanied.  The  former  is  said 
to  have  been  published  over  a  hundred  times.  Both 
were  composed  with  the  purpose  of  conveying  a 
more  exact  notion  of  the  sense  than  could  be  de- 
rived from  the  Vulgate.  Both  bear  in  every  verse 
marks  of  the  keen  insight,  close  discrimination,  well-, 
trained  linguistic  skill  of  a  scholar  who  had  made 
himself  by  an  unusually  comprehensive  study  of 
profane  as  well  as  sacred  literature  almost  as  familiar 
with  the  idioms  of  the  Greek  as  with  those  of  the 
Latin  tongue.  The  apparently  unprofitable  years 
spent  at  Paris  in  reading  the  works  of  the  ancients, 
with  no  present  object  in  view  other  than  the  grati- 
fication of  personal  literary  tastes,  now  bore  abund- 
ant fruit  in  an  unexpected  direction.  The  Biblical 
exegete,  not  less  than  the  elegant  orator  at  Poissy, 
drew  upon  a  treasury  of  classic  lore  stored  up  in  the 
years  of  leisure  when  the  chief  end  of  the  elegant 
youth  from  Vezelay  seemed  to  be  above  everything 
else  to  avoid  compulsion  to  wear  life  away  in  the 
dull  and  repulsive  practice  of  the  law.  The  merits 
of  his  work  have  been  variously  estimated ;  for  in- 
deed it  possessed  along  with  its  conspicuous  excel- 
lences some  peculiarities  regarded  by  adverse  critics 
as  undeniable  defects.  Of  these  the  chief  has  been 
found  by  some  to  consist  in  the  preponderating  in- 
fluence exercised  upon  the  interpretation  of  Scripture 
by  the  author's  view  of  the  doctrine  of  Predestina- 
tion. However  this  may  be,  there  is  no  question 
that  Beza  added  much  both  by  his  version  and  by 
his  notes  to  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  New 
Testament,     He  was  no  servile  follower  of  the  Vul- 


238  Theodore  Beza  [1565 

gate,  and  while  he  was  not  always  felicitous,  either 
from  the  standpoint  of  style  or  from  that  of  inter- 
pretation, in  his  departures  from  the  rendering  of 
the  Vulgate,  it  is  quite  certain,  as  we  might  expect 
to  be  the  case  in  the  serious  work  of  so  earnest  a 
student,  that  he  introduced  no  changes  for  change's 
sake.' 


^  See  Heppe,  364-368. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

BEZA'S  broad  sympathies — SYNOD  OF  LA  RO- 
CHELLE  —  MASSACRE  OF  SAINT  BARTHOLO- 
MEW'S  DAY — THE    ENGLISH    REFORMATION 

1 566-1 574 

WITH  Calvin's  responsibilities  Theodore  Beza 
had  also  inherited  Calvin's  broad  sympathies 
and  his  insatiable  avidity  to  learn  everything  occur- 
ring in  any  part  of  the  world  that  bore  upon  the 
progress  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  This  occupied 
his  thoughts  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  matters  of 
purely  secular  importance.  This  filled  a  great  part 
of  his  correspondence,  especially  with  men  like- 
minded  but  less  favourably  situated  for  the  receipt 
of  intelligence  from  abroad.  In  particular,  his  let- 
ters to  Bullinger,  throughout  a  long  series  of  years, 
contain  what  may  properly  be  styled  the  current 
history  of  Christendom.  A  few  sentences  of  a  letter 
to  the  Zurich  Reformer,  written  from  Geneva,  June 
6,  1566,  may  serve  as  a  specimen  of  this  correspond- 
ence, while  giving  a  glimpse  of  the  state  of  Europe 
two  years  after  Calvin's  death.  It  has  never  been 
published. 

"  We  are   enjoying  our  peace,   through  the  singular 
239 


^4o  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

and  incredible  kindness  of  God.  For  it  is  clear  to  us 
that  never  have  our  enemies  been  more  animated  than 
they  now  are  against  this  little  church  and  this  school. 
But  hitherto  God  has  frustrated  all  the  efforts  of  the 
wicked.  It  is  probable  that  were  we  to  stand  aloof  and 
hold  our  peace  [the  Duke  of]  Savoy  would  easily  secure 
everything  against  that  slave  of  all  iniquity,  Geneva, 
wherein  reigns  that  notable  robber  Beza.  We  shall  live, 
however,  so  long  as  it  shall  seem  good  to  the  Lord. 
Doubtless  you  have  learned  fully  all  that  has  been  done 
at  Augsburg,  and  how  those  thunderbolts  of  theirs  have 
vanished  in  empty  sound.  I  hope  that  the  Lord  will 
dissipate  the  rest  of  the  tempests  that  are  imminent.  ,  .  . 
"  For  the  rest,  so  far  as  appertains  to  the  French 
Churches  themselves,  they  are  happily  growing  in  the 
sight  of  their  adversaries.  But  it  is  certain  that  the 
latter  are  only  watching  to  obtain  an  opportunity  for 
overwhelming  the  chief  men  and  subsequently  ruining 
the  rest.  Of  this  our  friends  have  no  doubt,  and  mean- 
while look  to  God  [for  help].  Among  the  Piedmontese 
[Waldenses]  after  the  departure  of  Mr.  Junius,  the  same 
thing  occurred  to  our  brethren  that  befell  the  Israelites 
when  Pharaoh  was  wonderfully  exasperated  at  the  first 
appeal  of  Moses.  What  will  happen,  God  only  knows. 
In  England,  everything  is  gradually  tending  to  a  mani- 
fest contempt  of  all  religion;  good  men,  indeed,  groan, 
but  only  too  few.  In  Scotland  after  the  slaying  of  Sec- 
retary David  [Rizzio]  the  queen  is  said  to  have  become 
so  insane  as  even  to  have  his  bones  interred  in  the 
sepulchre  of  her  fathers.  Hence  fresh  disturbances 
have  arisen.  But  in  short  it  is  represented  that  all 
matters  are  now  settled  on  conditions  that  are  not  un- 
equal, if  only  they  be  sufficiently  stable.  Thus  much  I 
have  to  write.     Farewell,  my  father,  and  continue,  as 


1566]  Broad  Sympathies  H^ 

you  do,  to  commend  us  to  God.  Two  days  ago  we 
counted  up  two  thousand  students  at  the  promotions  of 
our  school.  Pray  that  the  Lord  may  bless  these  begin- 
nings, while  Satan  impotently  gnashes  his  teeth."  ^ 

The  attempt  to  make  of  Geneva  a  model  to  Christ- 
endom for  the  purity  of  its  morals,  enforced  by  a 
legislation  of  unexampled  strictness,  was  not  sus- 
pended at  Calvin's  death,  but  found  in  Theodore 
Beza  as  decided  an  advocate  as  it  possessed  in  his 
predecessor.  Calvin  had  not  been  in  his  grave  two 
years  when  a  signal  proof  of  this  fact  was  afforded. 

The  number  of  bishops  that  were  converted  to 
Protestantism  and  resigned  their  sees,  in  the  early 
days  of  the  French  Reformation,  was  larger  than 
one  might  suppose.  Among  them  was  Jacques 
Paul  Spifame,  Seigneur  de  Passy,  Bishop  of  Nevers, 
who,  in  1559,  forsook  the  kingdom  and  took  refuge 
in  Geneva.  Here,  as  a  nobleman,  he  was  readily 
admitted  to  citizenship,  as  well  as  to  the  ministry. 
Subsequently  he  served  as  pastor  at  Issoudun.  Cal- 
vin urged  him,  in  a  letter  still  extant,  to  return  to 
Nevers  and  take  charge  of  the  newly  established 
Protestant  church,  showing  the  people  of  his  former 
diocese  that  if  he  had  formerly  been  their  bishop 
only  in  name,  it  was  his  purpose  now  to  be  a  bishop 
in  deed."  But  unfortunately  Spifame  was  not  of  the 
stuff  of  which  good  pastors  are  made.  The  incon- 
sistencies that  appeared  in  his  life  both  when  the 

^  Letter  of  June  6,  1566.  Copy  in  Baum  Coll.  MSS.,  Lib.  of  Fr. 
Prot.  Hist.  Soc. 

^  Letter  of  January  24,  1562.     Bonnet,  LelL  Fran.,  ii.,  453,  etc. 
x6 


242  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Prince  of  Cond6  selected  him  for  some  diplomatic 
work  in  Germany,  and  when  he  sojourned  at  the 
court  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre,  led  to  investigation, 
and  investigation  disclosed  crime.  In  the  end  he 
was  arrested  and  tried  for  adultery  at  Geneva,  and 
being  found  guilty  was  sentenced  to  death.  Despite 
his  tardy  confession  and  the  contrition  for  his  sins 
which  he  testified  on  the  scaffold,  by  an  address  to 
the  people  that  was  accepted  as  satisfactory  proof 
of  repentance,  he  was  publicly  put  to  death  on 
March  23,  1566. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  so  severe  a  punish- 
ment for  a  crime  of  which  in  the  neighbouring  king- 
dom the  courts  of  justice  were  not  wont  to  take 
cognisance,  created  a  profound  sensation  and  drew 
down  upon  the  little  republic  of  Geneva,  and  upon 
the  ministers  that  approved  the  republic's  course, 
almost  universal  condemnation.  But  the  govern- 
ment did  not  flinch  in  the  determination  to  uphold 
the  law,  nor  did  Beza  fail  to  espouse  its  defence. 
Writing  to  the  eminent  Pithou,  of  Troyes,  in  Cham- 
pagne, less  than  a  month  after  the  event,  he  says, 
in  a  letter  which,  I  believe,  is  inedited :  ^ 

"  I  know  well  that  everybody  will  pass  his  own  judg- 
ment, and  that  Satan  will  not  spare  us.  But  I  hope  that 
the  wise  will  call  to  mind  the  Lord's  warning  that  bids 
us  not  to  judge  rashly  of  our  brethren,  and  therefore, 
with  still  greater  reason,  not  to  think  ill  of  an  entire 
Christian  Seigniory  and  Church.    .    .    .    As  to  the  others, 

^  Manuscript  letter  of  Beza,  of  April  22,  1566,  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Mr.  Ferdinand  J.  Dreer,  of  Philadelphia,  to  whose  kindness 
I  am  indebted  for  a  facsimile. 


1569]  Broad  Sympathies  243 

who  will  judge  as  they  please,  it  is  God's  province  to 
stop  their  mouths,  and  to  Him  we  appeal  from  all  foolish 
judgments  passed  in  so  many  places  against  us." 

While  every  part  of  Christendom  where  the  truth 
was  struggling  for  existence  claimed  and  secured 
Beza's  attention  and  prayers,  it  was,  next  to  Geneva 
and  its  schools  the  work  in  France  that  lay  nearest 
to  his  heart.  In  that  kingdom  the  interval  of  quiet 
was  short.  Then  two  more  civil  wars  rudely  dis- 
turbed the  delusive  dream  of  steady  progress  in 
which  the  Protestants  had  indulged.  The  disasters 
of  Jarnac  and  Moncontour  at  first  seemed  fatal 
blows  from  which  the  Huguenot  cause  would  be 
slow  to  recover,  if  ever  it  should  recover  from  them 
at  all.  But  the  marvellous  ability  developed  by 
Admiral  Coligny,  in  turning  a  flight  before  the 
enemy  into  a  successful  advance  that  carried  war 
almost  to  the  gates  of  the  capital,  raised  the  hopes 
of  the  despondent  and  wrested  from  unwilling  hands 
the  concession  of  a  peace  on  favourable  terms. 

So  long  as  it  lasted,  the  French  war  brought  new 
cares  and  anxieties  for  Beza.  Fugitives  poured  into 
Geneva  in  an  almost  incessant  stream,  and  these 
fugitives  were  for  the  time  to  be  provided  with  food 
and  shelter.  At  such  crises  it  was  to  Beza  that  all 
eyes  looked  for  advice  and  direction.  Never  did  he 
fail  to  secure  the  needy  material  aid.  Furnished  with 
strong  letters  of  recommendation,  envoys  sent  from 
Geneva  at  his  suggestion  laid  the  pitiable  condition 
of  the  destitute  Huguenot  refugees  before  the 
charitable  Swiss  cantons,  while  by  direct  appeals 
the  Reformer  reached  those  that  were  like-minded 


244  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

in   the    Low   Countries   and    beyond    the    English 
Channel. 

Meanwhile,  although  the  period  was  indeed  one 
of  deep  solicitude,  it  was  relieved,  for  Beza,  from 
time  to  time,  by  some  rays  of  encouragement  and 
hope.  The  Church  of  Geneva  was  steadily  growing, 
the  theological  school  received  a  constant  and  in- 
deed a  swelling  stream  of  students.  In  1569  Beza 
was  able  to  write  to  John  Knox  that  the  University 
had  so  greatly  increased  the  number  of  its  students 
that  he  believed  that  there  were  few  institutions  of 
the  kind  in  Christendom  that  were  better  attended. 
CoUadon  and  he  taught  theology  upon  alternate 
weeks,  and  there  had  now  come  a  third  professor, 
Gallasius  by  name,  driven  into  this  haven,  as  had  an 
almost  countless  crowd  been  driven  thither,  by  the 
tempests  of  France.  Yet  were  there  two  circum- 
stances that  prevented  the  Reformer  from  taking 
such  solid  joy  as  he  might  otherwise  have  experi- 
enced from  these  tokens  of  prosperity :  the  one  was 
that  if  the  church  was  growing  in  a  marvellous 
fashion,  it  was  growing  because  of  the  ruin  of  other 
churches;  the  second,  that  \.h.Q  plagtie  which  had 
sorely  vexed  the  little  city  on  Lake  Leman  a  year 
back  had  within  about  a  month  entered  upon  a 
new  course  of  destruction.'  The  state  of  things 
was  worse,  instead  of  better,  three  years  later,  a 
few  months  before  the  news  came  of  the  Parisian 
massacre. 

**  While  you  off  yonder,"  he  wrote  to  the  same  corre- 


'  Letter  to  John  Knox,  June  5,  1569.      Tract.   Theol.,  iii.,  287. 


I57I]  Synod  of  La  Rochelle  245 

spondent,  alluding  to  the  intestine  commotions  and  to  the 
deeds  of  violence  that  were  enacted  in  Scotland,  "  are 
exercised  by  tragedies  such  as  not  even  Greece  entire 
celebrated  in  her  theatres,  we  have  meantime  been  con- 
tending for  a  full  period  of  six  years  with  the  plague, 
nor  are  we  yet  altogether  through  with  this  combat, 
which  has  certainly  carried  off  not  fewer  than  twelve 
thousand  persons  in  this  little  town." 
In  fact,  he  informed  Knox,  Geneva  was  no  longer 
the  place  he  had  seen  years  before,  for  War  and 
Plague  had  severely  handled  her,  and  the  forms  of 
the  school,  once  crowded  with  pupils,  were  now 
empty.* 

When  the  Peace  of  Saint  Germain,  in  1570,  closed 
the  deadliest  war  to  which  the  Protestants  had  as 
yet  been  exposed,  the  ardour  of  Beza's  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  his  native  land  did  not  flag.  A  few 
months  later  there  was  held,  in  the  month  of  April, 
1 571,  and  within  the  walls  of  La  Rochelle,  most 
Protestant  perhaps  of  all  the  cities  of  France,  the 
seventh  in  order  of  the  national  synods  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches,  and  one  of  the  most  impressive  of 
all  these  historical  assemblies.  Not  only  did  Theo- 
dore Beza  come  all  the  way  from  Geneva  to  preside 
as  moderator  over  this  body  representative  of  all  the 
adherents  of  the  Protestant  faith,  but  there  was  a 
brilliant  representation  at  its  sessions  of  that  large 
class  of  princes  and  nobles  that  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  Huguenot  party  and  had  lately  been  foremost 
in  maintaining  its  rights  on  the  field  of  battle.  Their 
enthusiasm  had  never  run  higher.     Jeanne  d'Albret, 

1  Letter  to  the  same,  April  12,  1572.     Ibid.,  iii.,  290. 


246  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Queen  of  Navarre,  was  there.  With  her  were  the 
two  princes  in  whom  centred  the  hopes  of  the  Pro- 
testants— Henry  of  Navarre,  who,  it  was  hoped, 
would  make  good  the  damage  wrought  by  the  de- 
fection of  his  father,  and  Henry  of  Conde,  whom 
popular  expectation  regarded  as  destined  to  replace 
his  father  Louis,  slain  at  Jarnac.  There,  too,  were 
Admiral  Coligny,  Count  Louis  of  Nassau,  brother 
of  William  the  Silent,  Prince  of  Orange,  and  others 
scarcely  less  distinguished.  The  national  synods 
were  purely  religious  bodies,  unlike  in  this  the 
**  political  assemblies  "  which  were  occasionally  con- 
vened for  more  secular  purposes.  But  the  present 
synod  seemed  almost  to  be  a  joint  convention  of 
everything  most  highly  revered  in  Church  and  State. 
The  most  august  moment  was  when  three  copies  of 
the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Protestant  Churches 
having  been  carefully  engrossed  on  parchment,  each 
copy  was  signed,  in  accordance  with  a  solemn  reso- 
lution adopted  on  the  first  day  of  the  sessions,  not 
only  by  all  the  ministers  and  elders,  but  also  by 
Queen  Jeanne  d'Albret  and  by  all  the  princes  and 
noblemen  in  the  company.  The  first  copy  was  to 
be  preserved  in  La  Rochelle;  the  second,  in  a  city 
of  the  district  of  Beam;  the  third  was  sent  for 
safe  keeping  to  Geneva. 

It  was  not  a  mere  form  in  which  the  delegates  en- 
gaged when  giving  to  the  Confession  of  Faith  which 
the  French  Churches  had  adopted  and  presented  to 
Francis  H.  twelve  years  before,  their  renewed  and 
solemn  adhesion.  It  was  not  merely  to  honour 
Theodore  Beza  that  the  Queen  of  Navarre  and  her 


I57I]  Synod  of  La  Rochelle  247 

wise  counsellors,  disregarding  his  first  refusal,  had 
insisted,  in  a  reiterated  appeal,  that  he  should  come 
to  preside  over  the  synod.  Nor  was  it  an  accident 
that  the  very  first  subject  to  be  considered  was  that 
of  the  Confession  of  Faith,  to  be  followed  immedi- 
ately by  the  Ecclesiastical  Discipline  or  Form  of 
Government.  The  very  existence  of  the  churches 
under  their  present  constitution  was  in  question,  and 
it  had  to  be  decided  firmly,  explicitly,  and  once  for 
all,  that  the  structure  whose  foundations  had  been 
so  firmly  laid,  but  whose  order  and  symmetry  the 
years  of  war  and  confusion  through  which  the  Pro- 
testants had  been  passing  had  seriously  menaced, 
should  be  reared  according  to  its  original  design. 
There  were  those  who  wished  to  disturb  the  repre- 
sentative system  with  its  successive  courts,  rising 
from  the  session  or  consistory  of  the  individual 
church,  through  the  classis  or  presbytery  and  the 
provincial  synod,  to  the  national  synod  of  the  entire 
kingdom,  and,  in  place  of  securing  to  the  faithful  a 
purely  independent  existence,  to  subordinate  the 
Church  to  the  State,  and  make  the  pastor,  instead  of 
the  free  choice  of  the  Christian  community,  the  ap- 
pointee of  the  civil  magistrate.  "  The  civil  magis- 
trate," someone  had  lately  written,  "  is  the  head  of 
the  Church,  and  what  the  ministers  are  undertaking 
to  exercise  is  a  pure  tyranny."  Theodore  Beza  was 
requested  by  the  national  synod  to  reply  to  the  at- 
tacks made  upon  the  Confession  and  Government 
of  the  churches.'  It  was  not  the  first  nor  the  last  of 
such   important    charges  which  were  placed  in  his 

^  Aymon,  Tons  les  Synodes^  i.,  99. 


248  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

hands  by  the  Protestants  of  France  assembled  in 
their  highest  ecclesiastical  councils. 

The  year  following  beheld  the  occurrence  of  an 
event  which  changed  the  whole  face  of  French  his- 
tory— the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day — of 
the  tragic  story  of  which  we  may  not  in  this  place 
even  attempt  to  give  an  outline/ 

The  butchery  of  the  Huguenots  that  began  in  the 
city  of  Paris  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  August  24, 
1572,  afforded  a  fresh  opportunity  to  Beza,  and  to 
the  little  republic  of  which  he  was  now  avowedly  the 
leading  statesman,  to  display  their  charity  toward 
the  persecuted  Protestants  of  France.  Several  days 
would  have  been  required  in  the  midst  of  profound 
peace  for  the  tidings  to  pass  from  the  capital  to  the 
borders  of  Switzerland ;  the  news  was  purposely  re- 
tarded in  the  turmoil  into  which  the  kingdom  was 
thrown  by  the  dastardly  crime  that  inaugurated  the 
carnage.  Not  until  Saturday,  the  30th,  did  the  first 
information  reach  Geneva,  brought  by  merchants 
from  Lyons.  These  were  the  advance-guard  of  a 
great  host  of  fugitives  soon  to  be  expected.  Start- 
ling as  was  the  horrible  announcement  to  the  major- 
ity of  the  citizens,  it  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have 
surprised  Beza,  a  keen  observer  of  contemporaneous 
history,  whom  acquaintance  with  the  main  actors  in 
French  affairs  and  careful  study  of  their  characters 
had  prepared  even  for  so  tragic  a  scene  as  that  now 
presented  to  the  eye  in  his  native  land.  Least  of 
all    did   the   fate  of  the  magnanimous  and  unsus- 

^  See  a  full  account  in  the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots ^  chapters  xviii, 
and  xix, 


1572]     Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew     249 

picious  Admiral  Coligny  astonish  him  ;  for  he  had 
foreseen  the  catastrophe  and  attempted  to  set  the 
victim  on  his  guard.  "  Never,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend 
in  Heidelberg,  "  has  so  much  perfidy,  so  much 
atrocity,  been  seen.  How  many  times  did  I  predict 
the  thing  to  him  [Coligny]  !  How  many  times  did 
I  forewarn  him!"  Yet  Beza's  apprehensions  had 
probably  been  rather  for  the  life  of  the  great 
Huguenot  leader,  and  could  scarcely  have  embraced 
the  lives  of  so  many  thousands,  especially  of  more 
obscure  men,  women,  and  children  whose  blood 
drenched  the  ground  in  almost  every  part  of  the 
country.  In  the  midst  of  the  deep  affliction  into 
which  the  tidings  cast  him,  the  faithlessness  of  the 
young  king  and  the  ineffable  meanness  of  the  after- 
thought by  which  it  was  attempted  to  make  cul- 
prits of  the  innocent,  especially  raised  his  indignant 
protest. 

**  The  king  at  first  laid  everything  to  the  account 
of  the  Guises,"  Beza  wrote  to  a  friend  in  the  letter  just 
quoted;  "  now  he  writes  that  all  was  done  by  his  own 
orders.  He  dares  to  accuse  of  a  conspiracy  those  men 
whom  he  caused  to  be  assassinated  at  Paris  in  their  beds, 
men  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy." 

Most  of  all  did  his  sympathies  go  out  toward  the 
region  nearest  to  Geneva,  from  which  came  the 
majority  of  those  who  safely  reached  its  hospitable 
refuge. 

"  At  Lyons,  all,  excepting  a  small  number  of  persons 
saved  by  the  cupidity  of  the  soldiers,  presented  them- 
selves of  their  own  accord  to  be  shut  up  in  the  prisons; 


250 


Theodore  Beza  [1519- 


then  themselves  offered  their  necks  [to  the  knife].  Not 
one  drew  a  sword,  not  one  murmured,  not  one  was  ques- 
tioned. All  were  butchered  like  sheep  at  the  shambles, 
and  meanwhile  the  pretext  was  raised  of  a  conspiracy. 
0  Lord,  Thou  hast  seen  these  things,  and  Thou  wilt 
judge!  Pray  for  us  too,  who  may  expect  the  same  fate. 
Our  government  is  doing  its  duty,  but  it  is  in  God  that 
we  must  put  our  hope."  ' 

During  the  weeks  that  followed,  Beza  found  no 
lack  of  employment  in  encouraging  and  stimulating 
the  Genevese,   whose  resources  were  taxed  to  the 
utmost  by  the  sudden  addition  to  their  numbers  of 
a  multitude  of  once  prosperous  but  now  homeless 
and  destitute  refugees,   only  too  glad  to  have  es- 
caped from  France  with  their  lives.     Not  that  the 
citizens  themselves  needed  to  be  reminded  of  the 
claims  of  common  humanity  and  a  common  faith. 
They  could  boast,  in  after  days,  of  the  fact  that  as 
fast  as  the  fugitives  arrived,  they  were  carried  off 
to    private   homes,    one    citizen    contending    with 
another  as  to  which  should  have  the  honour  of  en- 
tertaining and  caring  for  those  that  bore  the  marks 
of  having  endured  the  greatest  hardships  or  received 
the  most  wounds.     In  fact,  so  fully  did  individual 
liberality  provide  for  immediate  wants,  that,  at  first, 
no  public  help  was  called  for.     Only  after  the  lapse 
of  a  month  was  the  need  felt  of  lightening  the  bur- 
den assumed  by  the  citizens.     Then  a  collection  of 
funds  was  made,  in  which  the  wealthy  councillors 
and  the  pastors  took,  we  are  told,  the  largest  part. 
It  was  Beza  who,  conscious  that,  in  the  danger  that 
1  Beza  to  T.  Tilius,  September  lo,  1572.     Bulktin,  vii.,  16. 


-y..  ^/;*.;  -r^-^..i  ^/...  .^^^^fc^ 


.vX* 


^-^. ;,!,  y. 


"^—^srfedtt 


^  H  i- 1 


V  -J 


|-^>^-^^ 


^  -i 


*-'Ms^.Aj^m 


1572]     Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew     251 

threatened  Geneva,  regarded  by  the  fanatics  both 
of  Italy  and  of  France  as  the  very  "mine  of  heresy, 
his  own  peril  was  the  most  imminent,  turned  his 
own  mind  and  the  minds  of  others  to  the  certainty 
of  the  divine  protection.  "  My  thoughts,"  he 
wrote  to  BulHnger,  "  are  more  occupied  with  death 
than  with  Hfe."  '  It  was  he  who,  on  the  day  set 
apart  for  solemn  fasting  and  prayer  to  Almighty 
God,  preached  in  the  pulpit  of  the  old  church  which 
Calvin  had  so  often  filled  in  former  years.  His 
words  inculcated  firm  and  unshaken  reliance  on  the 
goodness  of  God. 

"  The  hand  of  the  Lord  is  not  shortened,"  he  said. 
"  He  will  not  suffer  a  hair  of  our  heads  to  fall  to  the 
ground  without  His  will.  Let  us  not  be  affrighted  be- 
cause of  the  plot  of  those  who  have  unjustly  devised  to 
put  us  all  to  death  with  our  wives  and  our  children. 
Let  us  rather  be  assured  that,  if  the  Lord  has  ordained 
to  deliver  all  or  any  of  us,  none  shall  be  able  to  resist 
Him.  If  it  shall  please  Him  that  we  all  die,  let  us  not 
fear;  for  it  is  our  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  us  an- 
other home,  which  is  the  heavenly  kingdom,  where  there 
is  no  change,  no  poverty,  no  want,  where  there  are  no 
tears,  no  crying,  no  mourning,  no  sorrow,  but,  on  .the 
contrary,  everlasting  joy  and  blessedness.  It  is  far  bet- 
ter to  dwell  with  the  beggar  Lazarus  in  Abraham's 
bosom,  than  in  hell  with  the  rich  man,  with  Cain,  with 
Saul,  with  Herod,  or  with  Judas.  Meanwhile,  we  must 
drink  of  the  cup  which  the  Lord  has  prepared  for  us, 
each  according  to  his  portion.  We  must  not  be  ashamed 
of  the  Cross  of  Christ,  nor  be  loth  to  drink  the  gall  of 

1  Moerikofer,  Histoire  des  Refngih  de  la  Rc^fonne  en  Suisse,  lOi. 


252  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

which  He  has  first  drunk:  knowing  that  our  sorrow  shall 
be  turned  into  joy,  and  that  we  shall  laugh  in  our  turn 
when  the  wicked  shall  weep  and  gnash  their  teeth."  ' 

Fully  twenty  Protestant  pastors  had  found  therr 
way  to  Geneva.  These  shepherds  driven  from  their 
flocks  were  the  special  objects  of  Beza's  fraternal 
solicitude.  The  perils  to  which  they  had  found 
themselves  exposed  did  not  discourage  others  from 
entering  upon  the  studies  that  would  qualify  them 
to  embrace  the  same  dangerous  vocation.  Beza's 
hands  were  full  with  providing  for  the  relief  of  their 
extreme  want.  "  Our  school,"  he  wrote  at  the  be- 
ginning of  winter,  "  is  full,  almost  too  full;  but  the 
greater  part  of  our  students  have  come  to  us  in  a 
state  of  utter  destitution."  At  that  very  time — such 
was  the  Reformer's  untiring  literary  activity — he 
could  write  that  the  second  volume  of  his  theoloei- 
cal  works,  a  ponderous  folio,  was  in  press,  in  which, 
he  added,  "  he  contemplated  the  insertion  of  sev- 
eral new  pieces,  especially  some  theological  letters, 
should  God  grant  him  leisure."  ^ 

The  Parisian  massacre,  great  as  was  the  disappoint- 
ment of  cherished  hopes  which  it  created,  did  not 
permanently  dishearten  Theodore  Beza  and  those 
that,  like  Beza,  had  looked  for  the  speedy  conversion 
of  France  to  the  Gospel.  Much  less  did  it  chill  his 
affection  and  dampen  his  interest  in  his  native  land. 
After  it  not  less  than  before  it,  he  remained  the 
advocate  and  counsellor  of  French  Protestantism. 


'  Gaberel,  in  Rise  of  the  Huguenots,  ii.,  555,  556. 

2  Beza  to  T.  Tilius,  December  3,  1572.     Bulletin,  vii.,  17. 


1572]     Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew     253 

The  emergency  might  be  purely  ecclesiastical,  or 
might  have  reference  to  the  political  relations  of  his 
fellow-believers;  but  whatever  it  was,  the  Hugue- 
nots regarded  themselves  as  entitled  to  the  services 
of  a  man  equally  at  home  in  religion  and  in  diplo- 
macy. Prince  Henry  of  Conde  felt  that  he  could 
not  do  without  this  prudent  adviser;  and  so  often 
did  he  invite  the  Genevese  to  make  him  a  '*  loan  " 
of  their  leading  theologian,  that  at  length,  becoming 
impatient  of  the  inconvenience  to  which  they  were 
repeatedly  put,  they  politely  informed  his  Highness 
that  he  would  do  well  henceforth  to  depend  on  the 
letters,  in  heu  of  the  visits,  of  Beza.^  Nor  was  the 
latter  less  a  tried  friend  and  adviser  of  Henry  of 
Navarre,  w^ho  rarely  failed  to  communicate  to  the 
Reformer  his  conclusions  on  all  matters  of  prime  im- 
portance, and  attempt  to  justify  his  course  in  the 
Reformer's  eyes,  in  case  he  seemed  to  have  acted 
precipitately  or  ill-advisedly.  This  does  not  mean 
that  the  wayward  prince  was  much  disposed  to 
follow  Beza's  recommendations,  save  where  these 
coincided  with  his  own  predilections.  But  he  pro- 
fessed to  value  them  highly  and  not  to  reject  Beza's 
*'  holy  admonitions,"  even  when  not  profiting  by 
them. 

"  I  beg  you  to  love  me  always,"  was  the  postscript  of 
one  of  his  letters,  "  assuring  you  that  you  could  not  give 
a  share  of  your  friendship  to  any  prince  that  would  be 
less  ungrateful  for  it,  and  to  continue  your  good  reproof 
as  if  you  were  my  father."  ^ 


*  TAe  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre,  i.,  15. 

*  Letter  of  February  1,1581.  Lettres  Missives  de  Henri  I V,^  i->  35^' 


254  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Others  were  equally  anxious  to  obtain  Beza's  views 
and  more  certain  to  be  influenced  by  them.  The 
records  of  the  national  synods  of  the  French  Re- 
formed Churches  prove  that  at  perplexing  points  it 
was  customary  to  rely  much  upon  Geneva,  and  that 
Geneva's  wise  leader  was  consulted  whether,  for 
example,  it  was  deemed  opportune  to  draw  up  a 
statement  of  the  reasons  for  which  the  Decrees  of 
the  Council  of  Trent  were  held  to  be  null  and  void 
by  the  Protestant  world,  or  to  frame  an  answer  to 
antitrinitarian  books.  No  action  of  importance 
indeed  seemed  complete  which  had  not  been  com- 
municated to  Theodore  Beza,' 

There  was  probably  no  country  in  which  Protest- 
antism had  taken  any  root  that  did  not  claim  a 
share  of  Beza's  attention,  and  with  which  he  did 
not  at  some  time  or  other  enter  into  relations  by  his 
singularly  extended  correspondence.  Most  interest- 
ing to  us  is  his  part  in  the  reformatory  movement 
in  Great  Britain,  and  especially  in  England. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  of 
the  bitter  disappointment  which  upon  their  return 
to  England,  in  1558,  and  later,  awaited  the  exiles 
who  had  fled  to  the  Continent  to  avoid  the  persecu- 
tion reigning  in  England  during  the  five  years  of  the 
reign  of  Queen  Mary  Tudor.  Whereas  they  had 
looked  for  a  still  more  perfect  reformation  than 
under  Edward  VL,  they  found  a  retrograde  move- 
ment tending  to  the  reintroduction  of  theories  and 
practices  long  since  discarded.  In  place  of  greater 
liberty,  they  met  with  more  determined  repression, 

1  See  Aymon,   Tous  ks  Synodes^  i,,  47,  99,  122,  125,  183,  206, 


1574]        The  English  Reformation         255 

In  nothing  were  they  more  deceived  than  in  the 
attitude  of  the  new  queen.  Elizabeth,  upon  whose 
sincere  Protestantism  they  had  built  their  hopes 
during  the  weary  years  intervening  between  her 
brother's  death  and  that  of  her  elder  sister,  proved 
to  be  far  less  ardent  a  friend  than  they  had  antici- 
pated. With  Geneva  and  Genevan  theologians  she 
had  a  grievance  of  her  own.  It  was  from  Geneva 
that  had  issued  the  unfortunate  treatise  entitled 
"  The  First  Blast  against  the  Monstrous  Regiment 
and  Empire  of  Women."  John  Knox,  who  wrote 
it,  was  at  the  time  one  of  the  corps  of  preachers, 
being  pastor  of  the  English  church  of  the  city  of 
Geneva.  In  vain  could  it  be  shown  that  his  brethren 
in  the  ministry  had  no  part  in  the  composition  of 
the  treatise,  that  they  disapproved  of  it,  that  Calvin 
expressed  his  displeasure  to  Knox  and  to  Beza,  and 
was  only  deterred  from  publicly  condemning  it  by 
the  consideration  that  it  was  too  late  for  the  ap- 
plication of  such  a  remedy  to  do  any  good.  Queen 
Elizabeth's  secretary,  William  Cecil,  was  apparently 
satisfied  with  the  explanation,  but  Elizabeth  herself 
would  not  be  reconciled  to  the  Genevese,  whom  she 
regarded  as  over-severe  and  precise.' 

The  new  queen  was  peculiarly  fond  of  pompous 
ceremonial,  more  fond,  in  fact,  than  the  very  bishops 
whom  she  selected  to  take  the  places  of  the  prelates 
of  Mary's  time  who  had  been  removed  by  death 
or  whom  she  had  deprived.  One  of  their  number, 
John  Jewel,  writing  apparently  just  before  his  own 

^  Calvin  to  Cecil  (May,  or  earlier),  1559,  in  Calvini  Oj>.,  xyii.,  490, 
and  in  Zurich  Letters,  76,  etc. 


256  Theodore  Beza  [151Q- 

nomination  to  the  see  of  Salisbury,  hut  giving  some 
of  the  names  of  his  future  colleagues,  states  his 

"  hope  that  it  has  been  arranged,  under  good  auspices, 
that  religion  shall  be  restored  to  the  same  state  as  it  was 
in  under  Edward."  But  he  adds  in  the  same  breath: 
"  The  scenic  apparatus  of  divine  worship  is  now  under 
agitation,  and  those  very  things  which  you  and  I  have  so 
often  laughed  at  are  now  seriously  and  solemnly  enter- 
tained by  certain  persons  (for  we  are  not  consulted),  as  if 
the  Christian  religion  could  not  exist  without  something 
tawdry.  Our  minds  indeed  are  not  sufficiently  disengaged 
to  make  these  fooleries  of  much  importance."  ^ 

Bishop  Grindal,  of  London,  reverting  in  mind  to 
this  period,  wrote  six  or  seven  years  later: 

"  We,  who  are  now  bishops,  on  our  first  return,  and 
before  we  entered  on  our  ministry,  contended  long  and 
earnestly  for  the  removal  of  those  things  that  have  occa- 
sioned the  present  dispute  ;  but  as  we  were  unable  to 
prevail,  either  with  the  queen  or  the  parliament,  we 
judged  it  best,  after  a  consultation  on  the  subject,  not  to 
desert  our  churches  for  the  sake  of  a  few  ceremonies, 
and  those  not  unlawful  in  themselves,  especially  since 
the  pure  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  remained  in  all  its  in- 
tegrity and  freedom."  "^ 

There  were  others,  however,  and  these  among  the 
most  sincere  and  pious  of  the  ministers  recently  re- 
turned from  the  Continent,  who  honestly  regarded 
the  vestments  which   the  queen  and  her    advisers 

^  J.  Jewel  to  Peter  Martyr,  not  dated,  but  written  before  his  con- 
secration, January  21,  1560.      Zurich  Letters,  33. 

^  Bp.  Grindal  to  Bullinger,  August  27,  1566.     Zurich  Letters,  243. 


1574]         The  English  Reformation         257 

were  determined  to  reintroduce  as  more  of  conse- 
quence than  even  the  excellent  bishops  esteemed 
them,  and  refused  to  don  them ;  who  viewed  the 
use  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism  as  no  indif- 
ferent matter,  but  as  a  relic  of  popery;  who  de- 
clined to  kneel  at  the  administration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  because  to  them  it  seemed  to  be  a  plain  act 
of  worship  and  marked  a  belief  in  the  real  corporeal 
presence  of  Christ  in  His  sacrament.  The  neglect 
or  refusal  of  these  men  to  obey  the  new  prescrip- 
tions was  visited  with  harsh  measures  on  the  part  of 
the  government.  The  most  sincere  of  Christians 
and  the  most  devoted  of  pastors  were  deprived  of 
their  places  for  no  other  reason  than  their  scruples 
of  conscience.  Particulars  of  the  course  of  events 
during  these  most  mournful  and  disastrous  years  of 
English  ecclesiastical  history  must  be  sought  else- 
where. We  have  no  room  for  them  here,  save  as 
bearing  upon  the  position  taken  by  the  Reformers 
of  Geneva  and  Zurich.  For  to  Zurich  and  Geneva 
the  unfortunate  clergymen  of  England  naturally 
turned  for  sympathy  and  advice.  In  those  cities 
many  of  them  had  sojourned  during  their  exile. 
All  of  them  had  formed  relations  of  friendship  with 
the  leading  men  of  the  churches  of  one  or  both  of 
the  cities.  The  bishops  themselves  were  on  terms 
of  intimacy  with  Beza,  in  the  one,  and  with  BuU- 
inger  and  Rudolph  Gualter,  Zwingli's  son-in-law, 
and  Bullinger's  younger  colleague  and  subsequently 
his  successor,  in  the  other.  In  fact.  Bishop  Park- 
hurst,  of  Norwich,  had  during  four  years  been  a 
guest  in  Gualter's  house  at  Zurich.     Theirs  was  an 


258  Theodore  Beza  [1510- 

ancient  friendship  begun  as  far  back  as  when  Gual- 
ter  was  studying  at  Oxford/ 

Between  the  ministers  returned  from  the  Con- 
tinent that  protested  strenuously  against  the  inno- 
vations and  the  reintroduction  of  practices  aboHshed 
in  the  time  of  King  Edward  VI.,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  new  bishops  who,  after  a  period  of  active 
resistance,  acquiesced  more  or  less  completely  in 
the  measures  dictated  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  on  the 
other,  the  position  of  the  Swiss  Reformers,  consulted 
now  by  the  former  and  now  by  the  latter,  was  of  a 
delicate  nature  and  by  no  means  free  from  difficul- 
ties. The  Zurich  pastors  were  less  happy  than 
Beza  at  Geneva  in  meeting  these  difficulties. 

At  first,  when  the  trouble  seemed  to  turn  chiefly 
upon  the  question  of  vestments,  or,  at  least,  was  so 
understood  by  them,  the  attitude  of  Beza  and  that 
of  Bullinger  and  Gualter  were  the  same.  Beza  was 
at  one  with  his  Zurich  friends  in  treating  the  matter 
of  ecclesiastical  habiliments,  however  absurd  and 
unsuitable  these  might  seem  to  him  to  be,  as  too 
insignificant  to  warrant  him  in  countenancing  any 
disposition  on  the  part  of  aggrieved  ministers  to 
abandon  the  established  church.  But  a  divergence 
of  sentiment  developed  itself  later,  when  the  queen 
demanded  a  slavish  submission  and  the  bishops  ac- 
quiesced in  the  demand.  The  Zurich  theologians, 
having  once  given  their  confidence  to  the  bishops, 
saw  no  reason  to  withdraw  it,  believing  them  men 
of  piety  and  integrity.  More  than  all,  they  were 
determined  not  to  be  involved  in  a  conflict  in  which 


Gualter  to  Cox,  Bp.  of  Ely,  June  9,  1572.      Zurich  Letters,  406. 


1574]         The  English  Reformation        259 

the  feelings  of  the  contestants  had  become  so  exas- 
perated that  each  side  was  now  to  blame,  and  hardly 
any  remedy  could  be  discovered  for  the  mischief. 
They  disclaimed  any  power  to  dictate  to  the 
bishops,  and  therefore  refused  positively  to  take 
part  against  them  when  they  were  pleading  their 
own  cause.  They  equally  abstained  from  attempt- 
ing to  dissuade  their  opponents  from  presenting  to 
the  elector  palatine  a  petition  drawn  up  by  George 
Withers,  one  of  their  number,  with  the  view  of  in- 
ducing that  prince  to  use  his  influence  with  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  complete  the  reformation  of  the  Church, 
or,  if  this  boon  could  not   be  obtained,   to   secure 

for  those  that  abominated  the  relics  of  antichrist 
the  liberty  of  not  being  obliged  to  adopt  them 
against  their  conscience,  or  to  relinquish  the  minis- 
try."  ^  Bullinger  and  Gualter  wrote  to  Beza  at 
length  that  it  was  now  their  decided  resolution 
to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  anyone  in  this 
controversy,  whether  in  conversation  or  by  letter. 
"And  if  any  other  parties  think  of  coming  hither," 
they  added,  **  let  them  know  that  they  will  come  to 
no  purpose."  ^ 

Meanwhile  they  remained  on  such  terms  of  friend- 
ship with  the  prelates  to  whom  Withers  bade  the 
elector  palatine  transfer  all  the  blame  from  the 
queen,  as  to  be  frequent  recipients  of  presents,  es- 
pecially of  cloth,  doubtless  very  welcome  to  them 
in  their  self-denying  and  slenderly  paid  labours, 
until    Bullinger   found    himself   compelled    to    beg 

^  Petition  in  Zurich  Letters,  298-305. 

^  See  their  letter  of  August  3,  1567.     //;.,  297. 


26o  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Bishop  Sandys  and  Grindal,  now  become  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  to  desist  from  sending  more. 
Their  enemies  were  asserting  that  ,the  bishops  sent 
presents  to  learned  men  to  draw  them  to  their  side. 

I  had  rather,"  said  the  aged  BuUinger,  "  that 
men  who  are  so  ready  to  speak  evil  and  calumniate, 
should  not  have  the  least  occasion  of  detracting  from 
me  and  my  ministry."  ^ 

Beza,  on  the  other  hand,  although  still  remain- 
ing unmoved  in  his  love  and  respect  for  Bullinger, 
as  his  copious  extant  correspondence  abundantly 
proves,  and  although  after  Bullinger's  death,  in 
1575,  continuing  his  close  relations  with  Zurich  by 
a  frequent  interchange  of  letters  with  Rudolph 
Gualter,  was  much  more  outspoken  in  his  condem- 
nation of  the  course  of  the  queen  and  in  expres- 
sions of  sympathy  with  the  distressed  ministers 
who  suffered  for  their  conscientious  refusal  to  con- 
form to  her  arbitrary  demands. 

The  letter  which  Beza  wrote  to  Bishop  Grindal 
(June  27,  1566)  is  a  very  long  and  striking  docu- 
ment, intended  to  stimulate  that  excellent  prelate 
to  put  forth  strenuous  exertion  to  terminate  the  dis- 
tressing state  of  affairs  in  England.  I  shall  not 
even  recapitulate  the  arguments  employed  to  ex- 
hibit the  dangers  of  the  course  upon  which  the 
queen  had  launched  the  ecclesiastical  establishment. 
He  subordinated  the  question  of  ritual  to  doctrine^ 
conceding  that,  while  the  latter,  as  it  has  come 
down  to  us  from  the  apostles,  is  perfect,  admitting 

'  See  the  two  letters,  both  written  on  Septeinber  jO;  1574,  in 
ZlP'ich  Letters^  459,  463, 


1574]        The  English  Reformation         261 

neither  addition  nor  diminution,  the  forms  of  wor- 
ship were  not  fixed  by  the  apostles  themselves  for 
all  times  and  all  places.  But  he  deplored  the  re- 
tention of  practices  either  absurd  in  themselves  or 
injurious  in  their  tendencies.  He  condemned  still 
more  strongly  the  reintroduction  of  objectionable 
practices  after  they  had  been  discontinued  for  a 
considerable  space  of  time — practices  in  defence 
of  which  it  could  not  therefore  be  truthfully  urged 
that  they  were  followed  through  fear  lest  the  weak 
might  be  offended.  He  charged  the  responsibility 
for  schism,  if  schism  should  arise,  not  so  much  to 
the  account  of  such  brethren  as  might  forsake  the 
Church,  as  to  the  account  of  those  who  virtually 
expelled  them. 

"  Relying  upon  your  sense  of  equity,"  said  he,  "  I  shall 
not  fear  to  say  this  :  If  those  men  sin  who,  rather  than 
have  things  of  the  kind  forced  upon  them  contrary  to 
their  consciences,  prefer  to  leave  the  Church,  much 
greater  guilt  in  the  sight  of  God  and  the  angels  is  in- 
curred by  men,  if  such  there  be,  who  allow  flocks  to  be 
deprived  of  their  shepherds  and  pastors,  and  thus  permit 
the  beginnings  of  a  horrible  dissipation,  rather  than  see 
ministers  in  all  other  respects  blameless  [officiate]  clad 
in  this  rather  than  that  garb,  and  prefer  that  no  Supper 
be  offered  anywhere  to  the  starving  sheep,  rather  than 
that  kneeling  be  omitted.  If  this  be  the  result,"  he 
adds,  "  which  I  can  scarcely  believe,  it  will  be  the  begin- 
ning of  much  greater  calamities.  And  if  it  be  true,  as  is 
everywhere  asserted,  though  I  do  not  yet  credit  it,  that 
private  baptism  [as  in  the  Romish  Church]  by  women  is 
permitted,  I  cannot  see  what  it  is  to  return  from  the  goal 


262  Theodore  Beza  [151Q- 

to  the  starting-point,  unless  it  be  this.  Whence  has  this 
foulest  of  errors  emanated,  save  from  dense  ignorance 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  sacraments  ?  Whoever  is  not 
sprinkled  with  water  (say  those  that  uphold  this  profan- 
ation of  baptism)  is  damned.  If  this  be  so,  the  salvation 
of  infants  will  arise  not  from  God's  covenant  (which, 
however,  is  clearly  the  foundation  of  our  salvation),  but 
from  the  very  seal  of  the  covenant  that  is  affixed,  and 
this  not  that  it  may  be  rendered  more  certain  in  itself, 
but  rather  that  we  should  be  made  more  certain  of  it. 
What  would  be  more  unjust  still,  the  entire  salvation  of 
infants  would  depend  upon  the  diligence  or  negligence 
of  parents." 

There  were  other  rumours  still  more  incredible — 
so  improbable  were  they — that  the  English  prelates 
had  reintroduced  abuses  than  which  the  antichrist- 
ian  church  had  none  that  were  more  intolerable — 
the  plurality  of  benefices,  licenses  for  non-residence, 
permits  to  contract  marriage,  and  for  the  use  of 
meats,  and  other  things  of  that  sort.  '  If  the  story 
was  true,  these  were  not  a  corruption  of  the  Christ- 
ian religion,  they  were  a  clear  defection  from  Christ. 
Those  consequently  were  not  to  be  condemned  that 
opposed  such  attempts;  they  were  rather  to  be 
commended. 

The  letter  ended  with  some  stinging  words  of  re- 
buke for  those  who  wished  to  force  the  ministers  to 
pledge  themselves  to  obey  whatever  the  queen  and 
the  bishops  might  hereafter  prescribe  in  matters  of 
ecclesiastical  ritual. 

"I  have  yet  to  learn,"  wrote  Beza,' "  by  what  right, 


1574]        The  English  Reformation         263 

whether  you  look  at  the  Word  of  God  or  at  the  ancient 
canons,  the  civil  magistrate  is  authorised  to  introduce 
new  rites  in  churches  that  have  been  constituted  or  to 
abrogate  old  ones  ;  what  right  bishops  have,  without  the 
advice  and  consent  of  their  body  of  elders,  to  ordain  any- 
thing novel.  For  I  see  that  these  two  curses  [arising  from] 
the  base  and  ambitious  adulation  of  superior  bishops 
addressed  to  their  princes,  partly  abusing  their  virtues, 
partly  even  ministering  to  their  vices,  have  ruined  the 
Christian  Church  ;  until  it  has  come  to  such  a  pass  that 
the  most  powerful  of  the  Metropolitans  of  the  West,  by 
the  just  judgment  of  God  punishing  both  magistrates  and 
bishops,  has  snatched  up  for  hims.elf  all  rights,  human 
and  divine.  Yet  I  confess  that  my  whole  nature  shud- 
ders as  often  as  I  reflect  on  these  things  and  looking 
forward  see  that  the  same  and  yet  more  bitter  punish- 
ments threaten  most  of  the  peoples  which  so  eagerly 
embraced  the  Gospel  at  the  beginning,  but  now  are 
gradually  departing  from  it.  Nor  do  I  doubt  that  the 
same  groans  of  all  the  good  are  everywhere  arising.  Oh 
that  the  Lord  may  answer  them,  and  for  the  sake  of 
Jesus  Christ,  His  Son,  give  to  kings  and  princes  a  truly 
pious  and  religious  mind,  and  good  and  courageous 
counsellors.  May  He  bestow  His  Holy  Spirit  upon  the 
leaders  of  His  Church,  imparting  to  them,  first  of  all,  in 
abundant  measure,  both  knowledge  and  zeal  ;  and  may 
He  increase,  and  preserve  the  peoples  that  have  al- 
ready professed  the  true  faith,  in  purity  of  doctrine  and 
:ites  and  in  holiness  of  life.  Farewell,  and  in  turn  con- 
linue  to  love  me  together  with  this  entire  Church  and 
iciiool,  and  to  assist  us  with  your  prayers."  ^ 

Meanwhile  Beza,  as  he  informs  us,  was  consulted 


'  Tract,  Theol.,  iii.,  209-213, 


264  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

again  and  again  by  those  brethren  in  the  English 
churches  who  found  themselves  in  the  utmost  per- 
plexity respecting  their  duty,  in  view  of  the  novelties 
thrust  upon  them.  To  their  inquiries  he  states  that 
he  long  avoided  replying,  and  this  for  three  reasons: 
First,  he  was  unwilling  to  believe  that  such  men  as 
the  bishops  could  do  things  alien  to  the  duty  of 
their  ofifice;  secondly,  he  was  reluctant  to  pro- 
nounce an  opinion  based  upon  ex  parte  statements; 
thirdly,  he  feared  that  he  might  do  more  harm  than 
good.  Compelled  at  length  to  notice  the  points 
laid  before  him,  he  addressed  himself  first  to  the 
most  important  of  all : 

"  Can  5^ou  approve  the  irregularity  of  a  call  to  the 
ministry  when  a  crowd  of  candidates  are  enrolled,  with- 
out the  legitimate  vote  of  the  body  of  presbyters,  or  the 
assignment  of  any  parish,  and  after  a  very  slight  exam- 
ination into  their  life  and  morals  ;  upon  whom  subse- 
quently, at  the  mere  good  pleasure  of  the  bishop,  authority 
is  conferred  to  preach  the  Word  of  God  for  a  certain 
time,  or  simply  to  recite  the  liturgy  ?" 

"  We  reply,"  says  Beza,  "  that  calls  and  ordinations  of 
such  a  kind  by  no  means  appear  to  us  to  be  lawful, 
whether  we  look  at  the  express  Word  of  God  or  the  more 
pure  among  the  canons.  Yet  we  know  that  it  is  better 
to  have  something  than  nothing.  We  pray  God  with  all 
our  hearts  that  He  may  grant  to  England  a  more  legitim- 
ate call  to  the  ministry,  in  default  of  which  the  blessing 
of  the  teaching  of  the  truth  will  surely  be  lost  to  her  or 
maintained  only  in  some  extraordinary  and  truly  heavenly 
way.  We  must  beg  the  queen  to  attend  in  earnest  to  this 
reform,  and  her  council  and  the  bishops  to  further  it, 


1574]         The  English  Reformation         265 

But,  meantime,  what  ?  Certainly,  as  for  ourselves,  we 
cannot  accept  the  function  of  the  ministry,  even  if 
offered,  in  this  fashion,  much  less  seek  it.  Yet  those  to 
whom  the  Lord  has  in  this  manner  opened  an  avenue  to 
the  propagation  of  the  glory  of  His  kingdom,  we  exhort 
to  persevere  courageously  in  the  fear  of  God  ;  on  this 
added  condition,  however,  that  they  be  permitted  to  dis- 
charge their  entire  ministry  holily  and  religiously,  and 
consequently  to  propose  and  urge,  according  to  the  meas- 
ure of  their  office,  such  things  as  tend  to  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  condition  of  affairs.  For  otherwise,  if  this 
liberty  be  taken  away,  and  they  be  ordered  so  to  connive 
at  a  manifest  abuse,  as  even  to  approve  of  what  clearly 
should  be  corrected,  what  other  advice  shall  we  give  but 
that  they  prefer  rather  to  be  private  individuals  than  con- 
trary to  their  conscience  to  favour  an  evil  which  will 
necessarily  soon  bring  with  it  the  utter  ruin  of  the 
churches  ?" 

On  another  point  about  which  he  had  been  con- 
sulted, namely,  whether  they  might  not  continue  to 
discharge  their  office  contrary  to  the  will  of  the 
queen  and  the  bishops,  Beza  replied  that  he  shud- 
dered at  the  thought,  for  reasons  which  needed  not 
to  be  explained. 

The  subject  of  the  vestments  naturally  received 
attention  and  condemnation  at  Beza's  hands.  Yet, 
after  a  long  discussion  of  their  nature  and  tenden- 
cies, when  the  question  recurred,  "  What  shall  those 
do  upon  whom  these  things  are  thrust  ?  "  he  could 
not  but  reply  that  they  did  not  seem  to  him  to  be 
of  such  moment  as  that,  on  their  account,  either 
ministers  should  desert  their  ministry  rather  than 


266  Theodore  Beza  [151Q- 

vvear  them,  or  the  flocks  lose  their  spiritual  nourish- 
ment rather  than  listen  to  ministers  thus  arrayed. 

But  if  the  order  is  issued  to  the  ministers,  not 
only  to  endure  these  things,  but  approve  them  as 
right  by  their  signatures,  or  favour  them  by  their 
silence,  what  other  counsel  can  we  give  than  that, 
after  testifying  their  innocence  and  trying  every 
remedy  in  God's  fear,  they  yield  to  open  violence  ?  " 
Such  in  sum  was  the  advice  given  by  the  Genevese 
Reformer,  not  indeed  without  a  strong  feeling  of  dis- 
couragement, yet  also  with  the  hope,  which  he  ex- 
pressed before  concluding,  that  better  things  might 
be  in  store  for  a  kingdom  whose  reformation  had 
been  sealed  by  the  blood  of  so  many  excellent 
martyrs/ 

The  fortunes  of  Puritanism  in  England  were 
watched  by  Beza  with  interest  that  did  not  diminish 
as  time  went  on.  Less  solicitous  with  regard  to 
details  of  ritual  than  with  regard  to  the  integrity 
of  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  he  lent  his  full 
sympathy  to  the  Presbyterian  movement.  He 
honoured  and  estimated  at  his  true  worth  Thomas 
Cartwright,  that  prince  of  theologians,  of  whom  on 
one  occasion  he  wrote:  "  The  sun,  I  think,  does 
not  see  a  more  learned  man."  *  When  Cartwright, 
for  his  sturdy  maintenance  of  his  views,  was  de- 
prived of  his  chair  as  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity 
at  Cambridge  University  and  of  his  fellowship  in 
Trinity  College,  and  forbidden  to  preach  or  teach, 
he  crossed  the  Channel,   and   at   Geneva  was  wel-" 


^  Letter  of  October  24,  1567.      Tract.   Theol^,  iii.,  21S-221, 
*  Zurich  Letters,  479,  note. 


A  FRENCH  NATIONAL  SYNOD  IN  THE  17th  CENTURY. 

FROM    ENGRAVING    BY    G.     8CHOUTEN    IN    AYMON,     "  TOU3    LES    SYNODES.  •■       THE    HAGUE,     1710. 


1574]  The  English  Reformation        267 

coined  by  Beza  and  his  colleagues.  Strengthened 
by  conference  with  them  and  other  Reformers  of  the 
Continent,  he  returned  later  to  his  native  land  in 
time  to  support  by  his  voice  and  vigorous  pen  the 
"  Admonition  to  Parliament  for  the  Reformation 
of  Church  Discipline,"  which  so  infuriated  the  oppo- 
site party,  that  its  authors,  Field  and  Wilcox,  were 
consigned  to  prison  for  their  audacity.  The  Gene- 
vese  Reformer  was  held  responsible  for  a  great  share 
of  the  changes  which  it  was  sought  to  introduce  into 
the  government  of  the  Church  of  England.  Bishop 
Sandys  wrote  to  Gualter  at  Zurich  (August  9,  1574): 

"  Our  innovators,  who  have  been  striving  to  strike  out 
for  us  a  new  form  of  a  church,  are  not  doing  us  much 
harm  ;  nor  is  this  new  fabric  of  theirs  making  such  pro- 
gress as  they  expected.  Our  nobility  are  at  last  sensible 
of  the  object  to  which  this  novel  fabrication  is  tending. 
The  author  of  these  novelties,  and  after  Beza  the  first 
inventor,  is  a  young  Englishman,  by  name  Thomas  Cart- 
wright,  who  they  say  is  sojourning  at  Heidelberg."  ^ 

Unlike  Beza,  Bullinger's  associate,  Gualter,  had 
little  sympathy  with  a  movement  whose  ulterior 
results  he  suspected,  and  had  written  to  Bishop  Cox 
a  few  months  earlier,  March  16,  1574:  **  I  greatly 
fear  there  is  lying  concealed  under  the  presbytery 
an  affectation  of  oligarchy,  which  may  at  length 
degenerate  into  monarchy,  or  even  into  open 
tyranny."  ^ 


Zurich  Letters^  478,  479.  ^  Ibid.,  466. 


CHAPTER  XV 

CONTROVERSIES    AND    CONTROVERSIAL  WRITINGS 

WE  see,  in  his  autobiographical  letter  to  Wol- 
mar,  that  Beza  claims  for  himself,  as  a 
theologian,  little  or  no  originality.  And,  although 
this  letter  was  written  in  1560,  that  is,  very  early  in 
his  literary  career,  and  he  lived  and  studied  for  not 
much  less  than  a  half-century  longer,  he  would, 
doubtless,  have  taken  no  very  different  view  at  the 
end  of  the  period.  His  theology  was  essentially 
the  theology  of  his  great  master,  John  Calvin.  Ac- 
cordingly the  leading  doctrines  of  the  system  of 
Calvin  were  also  most  prominent  and  fundamental 
in  that  of  Beza.  If  there  was  any  difference,  these 
doctrines  were  more  strongly  accentuated  by  Beza 
and  more  rigidly  carried  out  to  their  legitimate 
consequences.  Most  of  the  controversies  in  which 
the  disciple  became  involved  arose  therefore  in  con- 
nection with  the  doctrines  of  the  divine  sovereignty 
and  election,  and  with  the  Reformed  view  of  the 
Lord's  Supper. 

It  would  manifestly  be  impossible,  within  the 
compass  of  the  present  volume,  to  speak  in  detail 
of  all  the  numerous  theological  disputes  in  which 
Beza  took  part  in  the  course  of  his  long  life,  and  of 
the  works  from  his  pen  to  which  they   gave   rise. 

268     . 


i56o]  Controversial  Writings  269 

The  greater  number  of  the  latter  may  be  read  in  the 
three  large  volumes  of  his  Theological  Treatises 
{Tractationes  Theologicci),  revised  and  republished 
by  the  author  himself  in  1582.  Since  his  opponents 
were  wont  to  reply,  as  best  they  could,  to  his 
arguments,  Beza,  unwilling  to  leave  the  last  word 
to  them,  usually  rejoined  with  a  defence  of  his  first 
position.  Thus  we  not  infrequently  find  two  or 
even  three  treatises  bearing  upon  the  same  point 
and  pursuing  the  same  lines  of  thought,  addressed 
to  the  same  antagonist. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Beza  informs  us  that 
the  important  work  to  which  he  prefixed  the  letter 
to  Wolmar  was  his  Confession  of  the  Christian  Faith, ^ 
composed  primarily  with  the  hope  of  gaining  over 
his  aged  father,  by  clearing  away  the  calumnies 
which  the  enemies  of  the  truth  had  circulated 
respecting  it.  Subsequently  given  to  the  world, 
this  Confession  took  a  classical  position  and  was 
recognised,  both  by  friend  and  by  foe,  as  an  authori- 
tative exposition  of  the  Reformed  belief.  The 
former  bought  and  read  it,  especially  in  the  French 
language,  and  circulated  it  in  many  successive  edi- 
tions. There  are  said  to  have  been  six  French 
editions  printed  in  Geneva  alone,  within  three  years 
of  the  original  publication.  It  was  translated  into 
English  and  Italian.  That  it  met  with  the  anim- 
adversion of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  not  sur- 
prising: the  reading  of  any  theological  writing  of 

^  Confessio  Christiaiice  Fidei,  et  ejusdem  Collatio  cum  Papisticis 
Hceresibus.  In  Tract.  Theol,,  j.,  1-79.  Letter  translated  in  Ap- 
pendix of  this  volunae, 


270  Theodore  Beza  .  [1519- 

Beza  is  strictly  forbidden  by  the  official  Index  of 
Prohibited  Books  down  to  our  own  times.  But  it 
is  certainly  significant  of  the  influence  which  the  Con- 
fession continued  to  exercise,  long  after  the  death 
of  its  author,  that  about  a  century  and  a  quarter 
from  its  first  appearance — that  is,  in  1685,  the  very 
year  that  Louis  XIV.  recalled  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
— it  was  still  so  widely  read,  and  esteemed  by  the 
clergy  of  France  so  dangerous  a  book,  that  it  called 
forth  from  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  a  distinct  con- 
demnation in  a  special  circular-letter.'  What  ren- 
dered the  Confessio7i  specially  odious  in  the  eyes  of 
the  prelate  was  the  circumstance  that,  not  content 
with  setting  forth  the  Protestant  views  on  such  im- 
portant points  as  the  Trinity,  the  Church  and  its 
Government,  and  the  Final  Judgment,  the  author 
gave  up  the  last  third  of  the  book  to  a  "  Brief  Con- 
trast between  the  Papacy  and  Christianity,"  of  a 
particularly  exasperating  character.  The  amenities 
of  discussion  were  rarely  made  of  much  account  by 
disputants  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  very  first 
position  which  Beza  undertakes  to  establish  is  that 
**  Papists,  in  place  of  the  true  God,  worship  a  ficti- 
tious and  imaginary  divinity  that  is  neither  perfectly 
just  nor  perfectly  merciful,"  for  "  that  cannot  be  a 
perfect  justice  which  approves  of  human  acts  of 
satisfaction,  nor  that  a  perfect  mercy  which  only 
supplies  the  deficiency  in  man's  merit." 

To  the  same  class  of  general  treatises  belongs  A 
Summary  of  the  Whole  of  CJiristianity,  with  the 
alternative  title,  '*  A  Description  and  Distribution 

'  Baum,   Theodor  Beza,  ii.,  83. 


1555]  Controversial  Writings  271 

of  the  Causes  of  the  Salvation  of  the  Elect  and  the 
Destruction  of  the  Reprobate,  Collected  from  the 
Sacred  Scriptures."^  At  the  head  stands  a  table 
or  diagram,  occupying  a  single  page,  wherein  the 
author's  conception  of  the  whole  scheme  of  God's 
deaHngs  with  the  human  race  is  presented  to  the 
eye.  This  is  followed  by  a  "  Brief  Explanation  of 
the  Foregoing  Table,"  covering  thirty-five  pages 
chiefly  taken  up  with  proof-texts  derived  from  Holy 
Writ,  but  introduced  by  sundry  citations  from  Saint 
Augustine,  indicating  that  the  question  about  Pre- 
destination is  not  a  question  of  mere  curiosity  or  of 
little  profit  for  the  Church  of  God.  This  treatise  is, 
if  we  except  the  defence  of  the  right  of  the  magis- 
trate to  punish  heretics,  which  we  have  considered 
in  a  separate  chapter,  the  first  of  Beza's  writings  on 
religious  topics,  having  been  written  and  published 
in  1555,  during  his  professorate  at  Lausanne.  It  is 
almost  needless  to  remark  that  it  closely  reflects  the 
influence  of  Calviij. 

Ten  years  after  the  Confession  and  fifteen  years 
after  the  Siinnnary  appeared  (1570)  another  system- 
atic treatise  from  Beza's  pen,  entitled  "  A  Little 
Book  of  Christian  Questions  and  Answers,  in  which 
the  Chief  Heads  of  the  Christian  Religion  are  Epi- 
tomised "  {Qiicestionuni  et  Responsionmn  CJiristian- 
aruin  Libelhis,  etc.).''  It  was  subsequently  enlarged 
and  accompanied  by  a  "Compendious  Catechism."  ^ 
For  clearness  of  exposition  this  third  treatise,  the 


'  Summa  totius  Christianis77ii,  etc.      Tract.   Theol.,  i.,  170-205. 

2//;/^.,  i.,  654-688. 

^  Catcchisnnis  Compendiai'iiis .     Ibid.,  i.,  6S9-694. 


272  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

fruit  of  Beza's  later  thought,  surpasses  its  predeces- 
sors. The  three  treatises  together  comprise  the  best 
results  of  a  long  study  of  systematic  theology,  and 
the  last,  in  particular,  will  repay  a  careful  perusal. 

On  the  subject  of  Predestination,  Beza  crossed 
swords,  as  early  as  1558,  with  Sebastian  Castalio, 
in  defending  Calvin's  doctrine  from  the  accusation 
of  being  contrary  to  natural  affection  on  the  part  of 
God,  as  the  Father  of  mankind,  and  from  other 
similar  accusations/ 

What  Beza  believed  on  the  subject  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  we  learn  well  enough  from  his  own  utter- 
ances respecting  it,  both  in  his  great  speech  before 
Charles  IX.  at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  and  on  other 
occasions.  While  denying  that  the  elements  of 
bread  and  wine  are  in  the  Communion  transformed 
into  the  substance  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
according  to  the  Roman  Catholic  view,  or  that  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  present  in,  with,  and 
under  the  bread  and  wine,  according  to  the  Lutheran 
view,  he  declined,  on  the  other  hand,  to  assert  that 
the  elements  are  mere  signs  and  that  the  act  of  par- 
taking is  a  mere  commemoration,  as  was  the  Zwing- 
lian  view  held  in  German  Switzerland,  but,  with 
Calvin,  believed  that  the  worthy  partaker,  not  in 
any  carnal  sense,  but  none  the  less  truly,  by  faith 
feeds  upon  the  body  of  Christ.  He  repudiated  the 
notion  that  he  would  divorce  Christ  from  the  feast 
He  had  instituted. 


^  The  original  title,  Ad  Sycophantarum  calwnnias,  etc.,  was  changed 
in  the  collected  works  lo  Ad  Sebastiani  Castellionis  calumnias  .  .  . 
Responsio.     Ibid.,  i.,  337-424. 


1559]  Controversial  Writings  273 

But  not  even  so  did  Calvin  or  Beza  escape  attack 
from  the  more  ardent  advocates  of  the  doctrine  of 
Consubstantiation,  and  the  scholar  felt  himself  com- 
pelled to  appear  in  his  master's  defence  as  well  as 
his  own.  To  the  scurrilous  assault  made  by  Joachim 
Westphal,  at  Hamburg,  he  wrote  a  careful  and,  on 
the  whole,  a  more  temperate  reply  than  could  have 
been  expected  in  the  circumstances.  It  was  en- 
titled "  A  Plain  and  Clear  Treatise  Respecting  the 
Lord's  Supper,  in  which  the  Calumnies  of  Joachim 
Westphal  are  Refuted  "  (i559)-'  As  Westphal,  not 
content  with  discussing  the  main  question,  had 
raised  a  hue  and  cry  against  the  rejection  by  the 
Reformed  of  so  many  ancient  usages,  Beza  answered 
in  defence  of  their  position  that  while  themselves 
dropping  the  practices  which  they  disapproved, 
they  carefully  refrained  from  condemning  their 
brethren  who  continued  to  observe  such  practices 
when  these  related  to  things  indifferent.  But  Beza 
waxes  angry  with  a  holy  indignation  when  he  comes 
to  advert  to  the  gross  and  vituperative  language 
used  by  Westphal  as  to  the  witnesses  for  the  faith, 
members  of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  France, 
burned  at  the  stake,  whose  ashes  were  even  yet 
smoking. 

"  For  the  insults  which  you  have  not  been  ashamed  to 
vomit  forth  against  the  holy  martyrs  of  the  Lord,  whom 
Popish  tyranny  is  daily  snatching  from  our  assemblies, 
you  will  yourself  see  to  it  how  you  shall  answer  at  the 

'  De  coena  Domini  plana  et  perspicua  tractatio,'"  etc.  Ibid. ,  i. ,  2 1 1- 
258. 


2  74  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Lord's  judgment-seat.  Their  writings  survive  and  will 
hand  down  their  blessed  memory,  whether  you  approve 
of  it  or  not,  to  a  grateful  posterity.  In  the  name  of  all 
Christian  Churches,  I  am  ashamed  that  in  any  Church 
there  could  be  found  a  man  so  insolently  wanton  as  to 
utter  sharp  words  against  those,  even  when  dead,  whom 
their  very  executioners  revered  while  they  were  dying. 
Certainly  the  Lord  will  not  suffer  to  go  unavenged  this 
more  than  inhuman  and  barbarous  cruelty.  To  Him  we 
commend  the  cause  of  His  martyrs."  ^ 

Nor  docs  Beza  leave  unnoticed  the  abuse  v^hich 
Westphal,  at  the  very  same  time  that  he  complains 
of  Calvin's  severity,  heaps  on  Calvin's  devoted 
head,  not  only  accusing  him  of  gluttony  and  wine- 
bibbing,  but  hinting  that  the  Reformer's  language, 
being  fit  only  for  the  ears  of  courtesans,  he  had 
possibly  learned  from  his  mother,  the  concubine  of 
a  parish  priest.  We  can  well  excuse  the  outburst 
of  indignant  remonstrance  to  which  Beza  gives  vent, 
when  he  stigmatises,  with  deserved  contempt,  the 
man  who,  in  order  to  crush  a  theological  opponent, 
accuses  the  most  abstemious  of  men  of  excess, 
and  exhumes  from  the  grave  a  respected  matron  of 
an  honourable  and  noble  family  in  Noyofi,  long  since 
dead,  that  he  may  without  proof  besmirch  her  un- 
spotted memory.^ 

To  Westphal  succeeded,  in  1561,  Tilemann  Hess- 
hus,  as  a  defender  of  the  Lutheran  phase  of  doc- 
trine, and  as  an  assailant  of  the  Genevese  church 
and  its  theologians.     That  Beza  regarded  him  as  a 


^  Ibid.,\.,  isi.  .  ^  See //W.,  i.,  257,  258. 


i56i]  Controversial  Writings  275 

stupid  adversary  was  no  sufficient  excuse  for  the 
open  contempt  and  rudeness  with  which  he  treated 
him,  even  if  we  give  all  the  weight  possible  to  the 
somewhat  frivolous  plea  that  the  exacerbation  of 
his  temper  was  due  to  a  particularly  annoying  attack 
of  catarrhal  fever  with  which  he  was  afflicted  when 
he  wrote.* 

These  were  discussions  of  the  earlier  part  of 
Beza's  course,  anterior  to  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy, 
and  before  the  Reformer  assumed  a  place  among  the 
disputants  most  widely  known  throughout  Christen- 
dom. After  that  event,  and  after  the  death  of  Cal- 
vin coming  so  close  upon  it,  Beza  fell  heir  to  new 
controversies,  carried  on  by  him,  not  as  Calvin's 
younger  adjutant,  but  as  Calvin's  legitimate  suc- 
cessor, partly  in  the  same  general  direction,  partly 
on  new  lines. 

Some  of  these,  doubtless,  were  not  only  need- 
lessly bitter,  but  altogether  unnecessary.  Such, 
perhaps,  was  the  controversy  that  arose  from  the 
attempt  of  Castalio,  in  his  translation  of  the  Script- 
ures, to  modernise  his  version  and  replace  the 
Hebraisms  of  the  Vulgate  with  good  Ciceronian 
phrases.  Yet  Beza  was  right  in  his  position  that 
fidelity  to  the  text  had  not  in  a  few  instances  been 
sacrificed  by  Castalio  to  the  supposed  exigencies  of 
a  flawless  Latinity. 

In   the   case   of  the   aged   and  respected   Italian 

scholar,    Bernardino    Ochino,  of    Siena,   there  was 

much  to  regret  in  the  attitude  taken  by  Beza  and 

by  other  Reformers.     Ochino  was  not  only  a  man  of 

'  See  Heppe,  91, 


276  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

great  ability,  but  a  Christian  that  had  sacrificed 
everything  for  his  faith.  Before  his  adoption  of 
Protestantism  he  had  enjoyed  wonderful  popularity 
in  his  native  land  as  a  pulpit  orator.  At  the  age  of 
fifty  he  was  the  prince  of  Lenten  preachers.  The 
praise  lavished  upon  him  by  the  learned  was  sur- 
passed only  by  the  plaudits  of  the  multitudes  that 
flocked  to  hear  him  whenever  it  was  announced  that 
he  would  speak.  If  Cardinal  Bembo,  a  leading 
scholar  of  the  period,  wrote  to  Colonna,  in  March, 
1539,  th3,t  he  had  never  discoursed  with  a  person  of 
greater  sanctity,  and  that  he  intended  '*  not  to  miss 
a  single  one  of  his  beautiful,  solemn,  and  edifying 
discourses,"  the  next  month  he  was  informing  the 
same  correspondent  that,  at  Venice,  from  which  he 
wrote,  Ochino  was  "  literally  adored,"  "  there  was 
no  one  that  did  not  praise  him  to  the  skies.  "^ 
Twice  was  he  elected  Vicar  General  of  the  Capu- 
chin Order,  and  so  well  did  he  stand  with  the  Holy 
See  that  his  nomination  was  cheerfully  confirmed 
by  the  Pope.  But  Ochino  was  becoming  more  and 
more  evangelical  in  his  preaching,  as  the  Roman 
Church  became  more  and  more  pronounced  in  its 
opposition  to  any  form  of  reformation.  The  inevit- 
able logic  of  his  recognition  of  the  doctrine  of  Justi- 
fication by  Faith  led  him  out  of  the  establishment 
in  which  he  held  so  high  and  influential  a  position, 
to  the  lands  beyond  the  Alps  where  he  could  give 
free  expression  to  his  new  convictions.  He  did  not 
hesitate  to  take  a  step  which  involved  the  loss  of 
all  things  that  men  prize  highest — rank,  ease,  the 

'  Karl  Benrath,  Bernardino  Ochino  (Eng.  trans.),  l6. 


1563]  Controversial  Writings  1"]^ 

esteem  of  the  multitude.  He  fled  first  to  Switzer- 
land. The  autumn  of  the  year  1542  found  him  in 
Geneva,  '*  an  old  man  of  venerable  appearance,"  ac- 
cording to  Calvin,  and  one  who  **  was  greatly  re- 
spected in  his  own  country."  He  was  warmly 
welcomed  by  the  Genevan  Reformers,  and  he,  in  his 
turn,  delighted  with  the  order,  purity,  and  simple 
worship  which  he  witnessed,  poured  out  an  en- 
comium upon  the  city  and  its  usages  which  I  should 
be  glad,  were  there  space  here,  to  reproduce.* 
From  this  time  forth  he  lived  an  exemplary  and  use- 
ful life  as  a  Protestant  and  a  Protestant  minister. 
When  he  left  Geneva,  at  the  end  of  three  years, 
he  went  provided  with  a  letter  of  "  special  recom- 
mendation "  from  Calvin.  He  was  well  received 
by  Bucer  at  Strassburg.  At  Augsburg  he  became 
by  public  appointment  Italian  preacher  to  his  com- 
patriots residing  in  that  city.  Compelled  to  flee,  in 
1547,  on  the  approach  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V., 
one  of  the  first  of  whose  demands  was  that  the  city 
should  surrender  to  him  the  person  of  Bernardino 
Ochino,  he  was  that  same  year  invited  to  England 
by  Cranmer,  shortly  after  the  accession  of  Edward 
VI.  The  six  years  of  that  estimable  prince's  reign 
were  spent  by  Ochino  in  labours  for  his  countrymen 
sojourning  in  London  whether  for  mercantile  pur- 
poses or  as  exiles  for  religion's  sake.  Meanwhile 
he  was  made  non-resident  prebendary  of  Canter- 
bury. When  Mary  came  to  the  throne,  Ochino 
hastily  retired  to  the  Continent,  and  for  ten  years 
(i 553-1 563),    or   until    within  about  a  year    of    his 

^  Translated  from  his  sermons  in  Ben  rath,  14S. 


27B'  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

death,  he  lived  in  Switzerland,  first  at  Geneva,  and 
afterwards  at  Basel  and  Zurich.  At  Zurich  he  ac- 
cepted the  ofifice  of  minister  to  Italian  Protestants 
from  Locarno.  Unfortunately,  in  this  period  of 
his  life,  Ochino  developed  a  tendency  to  indulge  in 
curious  speculations,  for  a  full  discussion  of  which 
the  reader  must  look  elsewhere.  Suffice  it  to  say 
here  that,  in  a  book  which  he  wrote,  not  so  much 
by  direct  assertion  as  by  inference,  the  soundness 
of  the  aged  author  was  brought  into  suspicion.  If, 
for  the  most  part,  he  seemed  in  the  dialogue  him- 
self to  assume  the  defence  of  the  current  belief  and 
left  the  attack  to  another,  yet,  with  an  impartiality 
carried  to  the  extreme  of  complaisance,  he  lent  such 
cogency  to  the  arguments  of  his  opponents  as  to 
lay  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  a  virtual  surrender 
of  principles  and  beliefs  that  should  have  been  dear 
to  him.  Thus  his  belief  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  equality  with  the  Father  naturally 
becomes  in  the  judgment  of  the  reader  more  than 
doubtful.  The  great  problems  affecting  man  and 
his  destiny,  divine  grace  and  human  ability,  and  all 
the  views  and  theories  that  have  troubled  the  ages, 
are  presented  in  so  antithetical  a  manner,  and  the 
arguments  in  favour  and  in  opposition  are  mar- 
shalled in  such  a  formidable  array,  that  the  decision 
is  veiled  in  uncertainty.  Of  such  contests  the 
natural  issue  is  in  doubt,  if  not  in  positive  despair 
of  the  attainment  of  certainty  in  matters  of  religion. 
Nor  indeed  in  matters  of  faith  alone.  Ochino  ex- 
hibited the  same  method  in  the  treatment  of  moral 
questions.      In  setting  forth  the  reasons  in  favour  of 


1563]  Controversial  Writings  279 

polygamy  and  in  condemnation  of  it,  he  left  the 
final  decision  in  such  suspense  that  the  answer  to 
the  question  whether,  in  certain  cases,  an  individual 
man  might  or  should  marry  a  second  wife  during 
the  lifetime  of  a  first  wife  was  referred  to  that  man's 
own  decision  acting  under  the  inspiration  of  God. 
If,  after  prayer  to  the  Almighty  for  the  grace  of 
continence,  the  gift  is  not  received,  Ochino's  ulti- 
mate counsel  to  him  is  to  do  whatever  God  prompts 
him  to  do,  if  only  he  knows  for  certain  that  God  is 
prompting  him ;  for  whatever  is  done  by  divine 
inspiration  cannot  be  sin/ 

That  the  Swiss  Reformers,  Bullinger,  Beza,  and  all 
the  others,  should  have  been  shocked,  amazed,  in- 
dignant, at  the  promulgation  of  such  views  by  a 
professed  adherent  of  the  Reformation,  is  not  sur- 
prising. Nor  is  it  surprising  that  Beza  regarded 
the  last  matter  mentioned  as  of  such  vital  import- 
ance that  he  published,  in  refutation  of  Ochino's 
views,  his  two  treatises  On  Polygamy  and  On 
Repudiation  and  Divorce ^  extracted  from  his  lec- 
tures on  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians." 
That  Beza  styled  him  "  an  impure  apostate  "  may 
be  explained,  if  it  may  not  be  excused,  by  the  fact 
that  the  whole  trend  of  Ochino's  disputations  was 
directly  to  that  **  academic  uncertainty  "  respecting 
all  truth  which  the  Reformers  regarded  as  more  per- 
nicious than  any  single  error  of  doctrine,  since  it 
sapped  the  foundations  of  all  religion.  But  it  was 
certainly  not  to  the  credit  of  the  Protestant  Reform- 
ers, especially  those  of  Zurich  and  Basel,  that  in 
'  Benrath,  268,  foil,  2  Tract,  ThcoL.  ii.,  1-109. 


28o  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

their  detestation  of  the  utterances  of  their  misguided 
brother,  long  their  associate  in  Christian  work  and 
the  object  of  their  Christian  affection,  they  forgot 
the  past  too  completely,  and  sanctioned,  if  they  did 
not  urge,  the  severe  punishment  which  the  magis- 
trates dealt  out  to  Ochino,  without  allowing  him  to 
be  heard  in  his  own  defence,  or  in  explanation  of 
books  written,  not  in  the  vernacular  for  circulation 
among  the  people,  but  in  a  foreign  tongue  for  the 
consideration  of  the  learned  and  curious.  The  cir- 
cumstance that  Sebastian  Castalio  had  acted  as  his 
translator  aggravated  the  resentment  of  the  indig- 
nant Zurichers  at  having  ignorantly  harboured  for 
so  long  a  time  in  their  city  a  disloyal  Protestant,  in 
one  whom  they  had  known  only  as  a  brother  in  the 
faith.  Old  and  infirm — he  was  in  the  seventy-sixth 
or  seventy-seventh  year  of  his  age, — the  venerable 
man  whom  all  had  so  lately  united  in  honouring  for 
his  past  services  was  in  midwinter  bidden  to  depart 
from  the  city  and  jurisdiction  of  Zurich,  in  company 
with  his  four  children,  within  a  term  of  a  fortnight 
or,  at  furthest,  three  weeks.  Basel  would  not  long  re- 
ceive him,  Miilhausen  refused  him  a  refuge,  Nurem- 
berg consented  only  to  his  passing  the  winter  there. 
From  Poland  he  was  expelled  with  all  foreigners  not 
Roman  Catholics.  He  died  of  the  plague  at  Schlac- 
kau  in  Moravia,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1564.' 

Respecting  the  bodily  presence  of  our  Lord  in  the 
Eucharist,  Beza  continued  to  be  drawn  into  contro- 
versies, reaching  through  many  years,  partly  with 
Roman   Catholics,   partly  with  fellpw-Protestants, 

1  Benrath,  297, 


1564]  Controversial  Writings  281 

Among  the  former  the  most  prominent  was  the 
white  friar,  Claude  de  Sainctes,  whom  he  had  en- 
countered at  the  third  session  of  the  Colloquy  of 
Poissy.  It  was  Claude  who  had  on  that  occasion 
made  the  astounding  assertion  that  tradition  stands 
on  more  stable  foundation  than  do  the  Holy  Script- 
ures themselves,  inasmuch  as  the  latter  can  be 
dragged  hither  and  thither  by  a  variety  of  interpre- 
tations.' He  showed  no  more  wit  in  the  treatise 
which  he  brought  out,  five  or  six  years  later,  under 
the  title.  An  Examination  of  the  Calvinistic  aiid 
BezcBan  Doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Snpper.  The  au- 
thor's crudity  would  seem  to  have  warranted  Beza's 
somewhat  contemptuous  designation  of  him  as 
a  **  theologaster. "  De  Sainctes  had  aimed  at 
currying  favour  with  his  patron,  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  by  reinforcing  the  prelate's  peculiar  at- 
tempt to  confound  or  win  over  Beza  and  his  com- 
panions at  the  great  colloquy.  The  cardinal's 
strength  did  not  lie  in  the  breadth  or  depth  of  his 
theological  acquisitions;  but  he  certainly  had  no 
lack  of  cunning.  If,  he  thought,  the  Calvinists 
could  not  be  silenced  by  argument,  at  least  their 
cause  would  be  prejudiced  if,  in  any  way,  they 
could  be  set  by  the  ears  with  their  fellow-Protest- 
ants from  beyond  the  Rhine. 

In  his  written  attack,  Claude  de  Sainctes,  reviving 
his  patron's  tactics,  endeavoured  to  establish  that  a 
difference  of  theological  views  separated  Geneva 
from  the  neighbouring  cantons  of  Switzerland,  while 
there  was  a  fundamental  contradiction,  amounting 
I  Jean  de  Serres,  C0771,  de  Statu  Rel,  et  Reip,,  i.,  315, 


282  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

to  real  enmity,  between  the  Calvinists  and  the  Lu- 
therans. Whereupon  Beza  reminded  the  friar  that  his 
contention  did  not  possess  even  the  merit  of  novelty. 

"  Have  you  forgotten,  Claude,"  he  said,  "  the  answer 
I  gave  to  your  cardinal,  in  that  more  absurd  than  serious 
skirmish  of  his,  at  a  time  when  he  was  devising  the  very 
same  assault  that  you  are  now  making  ?  Drawing  from 
his  bosom  a  paper  which  he  at  first  pretended  to  be  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg,  but  which  was  in  reality,  as 
subsequently  appeared,  a  copy  of  a  private  confession  of 
a  certain  one  of  the  Wittenberg  theologians,  recently 
brought  to  him  by  one  Rascalo,  his  spy,  without  their 
knowledge,  the  cardinal  inquired  of  me  whether  we 
would  give  our  assent  to  it.  In  turn,  I  asked  him  to  tell 
me  whether  he  himself  assented  to  it.  Startled  by  my 
unexpected  reply,  he  frankly  admitted  that  he  could  not 
do  so.  Thereupon  I  retorted  :  '  What  affair  is  it,  then,  of 
yours  whether  we  agree  with  them  or  no,  since  you  dissent 
from  us  both  ?  And  yet,  lest  you  should  suppose  that  I 
am  seeking  to  evade  the  question,  I  will  tell  you  that  we 
regard  those  whom  you  call  "  Protestants  "  as  our  very 
dear  brethren — that  we  disagree  with  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession on  only  a  very  few  points — and  that  these  very 
points  themselves,  suitably  interpreted,  could  easily  be 
reconciled,  did  not  the  unreasonableness  of  certain  per- 
sons stand  in  the  way.'  This  is  what  I  said  on  that  oc- 
casion. I  do  not  imagine  that  you  have  forgotten  my 
words.  For  this  reason  I  should  be  the  more  astonished 
that  you  have  now  undertaken  the  same  plan,  were  it  not 
that  the  whole  world  has  come  to  understand  what  is 
your  sense  of  shame,  what  your  conscience,"  ^ 


Tr(^<;tr  Theol.^  ii,,  289, 


1567]  Controversial  Writings  283 

Into  the  systematic  refutation  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation  and  the 
Real  Presence,  occupying  in  particular  the  whole  of 
Beza's  third  and  last  answer  to  Claude  de  Sainctes, 
there  is  no  need  of  our  entering.  Let  it  be  enough 
to  say  that  it  was  careful,  comprehensive,  cogent.' 
To  us,  however,  the  chief  interest  attaching  to  the 
whole  controversy  is  the  personal  element  which 
the  friar  introduced  into  the  matter  in  his  first  attack 
upon  Calvin  and  upon  Beza  himself.  The  circum- 
stance that  he  had  not  neglected  a  single  opportun- 
ity to  calumniate  them,  that  he  had  not  omitted  a 
single  incident  of  their  lives  that  could  be  misinter- 
preted or  wrested  to  their  disadvantage,  makes  De 
Sainctes's  accusations  with  Beza's  replies  uncom- 
monly interesting  reading,  and  invests  them  with  a 
certain  historical  importance.  Witness,  for  ex- 
ample, the  triumphant  retort  of  Beza  to  the  monk's 
scurrilous  slanders  respecting  the  alleged  impur- 
ity of  his  early  life  at  Paris  and  his  compulsory 
and  clandestine  flight  to  Geneva  in  order  to  avoid 
condign  punishment  for  his  vices.  "  Had  I  been 
seized  with  the  love  of  lewd  women,"  said  he, 
**  should  I  have  betaken  myself  to  that  city  which 
is  almost  the  only  one  where  licentious  living  is 
punished  by  public  ignominy  and  by  no  insignificant 
fines,  and  adultery  by  death  }  "  ^ 

More  lamentable  than  any  controversies  with  the 
Roman  Catholics,  because  more  unnecessary  and 
more  productive    of   evil   and    discord    within    the 


^  Ibid.,  iii.,  1-53.  "^  Ibid.,  ii.,  360. 


284  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

bosom  of  Protestantism  itself,  were  the  controversies 
with  representatives  of  the  dominant  phase  of  the 
theology  of  Germany.  I  am  glad  that  the  scope  of 
this  work  is  such  that  I  am  not  compelled  to  re- 
hearse in  detail  the  mournful  story  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  divergence  of  views  already  subsisting 
became  more  and  more  pronounced,  and  a  mere 
difference  of  theory  led  to  a  separation,  a  schism, 
almost  to  a  positive  hatred,  between  men  who 
should  have  loved  and  respected  each  other  as 
members  of  one  Christian  host  arrayed  against  one 
common  enemy. 

What  were  Beza's  feelings  toward  the  Lutherans 
we  have  already  seen.  What  he  said  to  the  Cardi- 
nal of  Lorraine  at  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy  was  the 
sincere  sentiment  of  his  heart, — they  were  his  very 
dear  brethren  in  Christ.  That  there  were  differ- 
ences between  their  views  on  the  mode  of  Christ's 
presence  in  the  Sacrament  and  respecting  the  alleged 
ubiquity  of  His  human  body,  he  did  not  affect  to 
deny.  But  he  was  disposed,  instead  of  magnifying 
these  differences,  to  reduce  them  to  the  smallest 
possible  dimensions.  His  manly  honesty  did  not 
allow  him,  indeed,  to  abstain  from  strenuously  main- 
taining the  truth,  as  he  conceived  it  to  be,  against 
every  successive  opponent,  but  this  loyalty  to  prin- 
ciple did  not  prevent  him  from  sincerely  desiring, 
what  was  also  the  sincere  desire  of  Philip  Melanch- 
thon,  especially  in  his  later  years,  that  a  cordial  and 
charitable  union  might  be  effected  between  the  two 
great  branches  of  the  Church  of  the  Reformation. 
But   that   friend  of  concord  was  no  more,  and  the 


1586]  Controversial  Writings  285 

loss  to  Christendom  by  his  removal  by  death  was  in 
Beza's  view  irreparable.  Scarcely  had  five  years 
elapsed  when  the  latter  wrote  to  the  brethren  of 
Bern  and  Zurich  that  the  enemy  were  now  hoping 
to  effect  their  designs  with  much  greater  ease  than 
hitherto  because  now,  as  never  before,  they  would 
have  the  Papists  as  allies  in  the  condemnation  of 
the  Reformed,  and  because  "  no  Melanchthon  sur- 
vived to  restrain  them  by  his  great  authority."  ^  It 
is  a  thousand-fold  to  be  deplored  that  his  advances 
toward  conciliation  were  not  responded  to  with  a  cor- 
responding cordiality,  but  met  with  coldness  when 
they  did  not  call  forth  an  absolute  denial  of  the 
fraternal  bond.  The  latter  was  the  case  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  conference  held  at  Montbeliard, 
in  March,  1586.  The  excellent  Count  Frederick  of 
Wiirtemberg,  under  whose  auspices  the  gathering 
of  theologians  was  held,  was  an  ardent  lover  of 
peace  and  leaned  to  the  Reformed  views.  Beza, 
now  an  old  man,  had  rrot,  in  his  zeal  for  union, 
hesitated  to  come  in  person  and  endeavour  to  find 
the  common  ground  upon  which  he  was  convinced 
that  Calvinists  and  Lutherans  could  honourably 
stand  without  sacrifice  of  dignity  or  principle.  But 
the  attitude  of  Andreae,  the  chief  representative  of 
the  other  side,  was  unconciliatory,  and,  at  the  end 
of  the  discussion,  the  two  parties  were  farther  apart 
than  they  were  at  its  commencement.  In  vain  had 
it  been  made  clear  to  every  impartial  man  that  the 
two  great  wings  of  the  Protestant  Church  were  prac- 

'  Inedited  letter  of  Beza  to  the  Bernese  and  Zurichois,  Dec.  14, 
1565.     Copy  in  Baum  Collection,  Lib.  of  Fr.  Prot.  Hist.  Soc,  Paris. 


286  Theodore  Beza  [1586 

tically  in  complete  accord  as  against  the  Church  of 
Rome.  When,  the  conference  over,  Beza  offered 
his  right  hand  in  token  of  love  and  confidence  to 
the  man  with  whom  the  argument  had  been  chiefly 
sustained,  Andrese  declined  to  take  it.  He  could 
as  little  see,  he  said,  how  Beza  was  able  to  esteem 
him  and  the  other  Wiirtemberg  theologians,  to 
whom  he  had  imputed  all  sorts  of  errors,  as  brethren, 
as  he  himself  could  recognise  fraternal  communion 
with  Beza,  who  had  shown  that  he  held  the  imagin- 
ations of  men  above  the  Word  of  God.  But  while 
he  could  not  greet  him  as  a  brother,  Andreae  was 
pleased  to  offer  him  his  hand  as  a  fellow-man.  Beza, 
however,  promptly  rejected  the  ostentatious  mark 
of  condescension.' 


The  Huguenots  and  Hem' y  of  Navarre,  i.,  401. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

BEZA   AND    THE    HUGUENOT   PSALTER 

IT  has  frequently  been  said  that  to  Beza  the  world 
is  indebted,  if  not  for  the  whole  of  the  Hugue- 
not liturgy  for  the  Lord's  Day  service,  at  least  for 
the  beautiful  confession  of  sins  and  prayer  that  con- 
stitute its  most  striking  feature.  It  has  been  asserted 
that  this  simple  but  grand  formula  was  taken  from 
the  extemporaneous  words  used  by  the  Reformer  at 
the  beginning  of  his  historical  defence  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches  and  their  doctrine  at  the  Colloquy 
of  Poissy,  without  doubt  the  most  picturesque  and 
impressive  scene  not  only  in  the  life  of  Beza  him- 
self, but  in  the  early  period  of  the  French  Reforma- 
tion. We  have  seen,  however,  that  the  story  is  a 
pleasing  fiction,  and  that  the  confession  of  sins,  so 
far  from  being  uttered  for  the  first  time  before  the 
august  assembly  that  met  in  the  nuns'  refectory  of 
Poissy,  had  before  then  been  repeatedly  on  the  lips 
of  martyrs  at  the  stake,  nay,  that  for  nearly  twenty 
years  it  had  been  a  component  part  of  Protestant 
worship,  both  when  secretly  and  when  openly  cele- 
brated, at  Strassburg,  at  Geneva,  and  in  a  multitude 
of  places  in  France.  Composed  and  used  for  several 
years    before  Theodore  Beza  fully  broke  with  the 

287 


288  Theodore  Beza  [151Q-. 

Church  of  Rome,  that  liturgy  had  for  its  author  not 
the  young  student  from  Vezelay,  but  John  Calvin 
himself. 

But  Beza  rendered  to  Huguenot  devotion  a  serv- 
ice not  less  notable  in  another  direction.  The 
worship  of  God's  house  could  have  been  conducted 
in  an  orderly  and  impressive  manner  and  with  un- 
diminished fervour  without  Calvin's  liturgy  at  all; 
but  deprived  of  the  metrical  psalms  the  worship 
would  have  lost  its  most  characteristic  feature. 
Without  those  psalms,  too,  the  very  history  of  the 
Huguenots,  civil  as  well  as  religious,  would  have 
been  robbed  of  a  great  part  of  its  individuality.  In 
the  long  conflict  that  arose  out  of  the  effort  to 
crush  the  Protestant  doctrines  and  their  professors 
in  France,  from  the  first  outbreak  of  civil  war  in 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  down  to  the 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  the  seven- 
teenth, and  indeed  far  beyond  that  time,  when  the 
Reformed  faith  was  supposed  to  have  been  annihi- 
lated, the  psalms  were  the  badge  by  which  the 
Huguenots  were  recognised  by  friend  and  foe  alike, 
they  were  the  stimulus  of  the  brave,  the  battle-cry 
of  the  combatant,  the  last  consolatory  words  whis- 
pered in  the  ears  of  the  dying. 

Now  the  French  psalms  were  peculiarly  the  work 
of  Theodore  Beza. 

True,  indeed,  it  is  that  the  collection  bears  and 
has  always  borne  the  joint  names  of  Clement  Marot 
and  Theodore  de  Beze,  and  that  it  was  the  success  of 
the  brilliant  and  versatile  poet  of  the  Renaissance  in 
his  attempts  to  turn  the  psalms  of  David  into  French 


CLEMENT    MAROT. 

FROM    A    PAINTING    BY    CARLONE. 


1562]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  289 

verse  that  led  Beza  to  follow  his  example.  But 
what  had  been  approached  by  the  former,  it  would 
seem,  mainly  as  a  literary  task,  aiming  first  of  all  at 
the  gratification  of  the  reader,  was  with  the  latter  a 
labour  of  love  and  an  attempt  to  achieve  for  the 
cause  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life  the  most 
noble  of  works.  For  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that 
efforts  which  give  to  pious  thought  the  most  appro- 
priate vehicle  for  its  expression  fall  short  of  no  other 
human  ambitions  in  usefulness  and  dignity. 

It  may  be  admitted  from  the  start  that  in  native 
poetical  genius  Beza  falls  distinctly  below  Marot. 
The  verdict  of  the  literary  world  on  this  point  is  not 
likely  to  be  reversed.  In  any  production  of  a  kind 
demanding  the  exercise  of  a  lively  imagination,  on 
any  subject  where  the  light  touch  of  a  master  in  the 
graceful  expression  of  thought  is  of  the  first  import- 
ance, there  can  be  no  question  that  his  countrymen 
would  give  the  palm  to  the  poet  whose  days  were 
spent  in  the  court  and  in  the  frivolous  circles  of  the 
great.  Yet  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  look  for  a  more 
adequate  treatment  of  religious  themes  at  the  hands 
of  a  writer  in  full  and  lasting  sympathy  with  their 
high  truths  than  at  the  hands  of  a  poet  whose  re- 
ligious feelings  are  either  shallow  or  evanescent.  As 
Beza  could  enter  more  easily  than  Marot  into  the 
devotional  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  original,  so  there  are 
psalms  or  parts  of  psalms  which  have  been  rendered 
by  him  with  a  dignity  approaching  to  grandeur,  with  a 
dignity  which  the  most  prejudiced  critic  must  confess 
is  unsurpassed  in  anything  from  the  pen  of  Marot. 

Among  these  psalms  stands  prominent  the  sixty- 
19 


290  Theodore  Beza  [151Q- 

eighth,  of  which  the  initial  stanza  of  twelve  lines 
deserves,  more  than  any  other  passage,  to  be 
regarded  as  the  choicest  jewel  of  the  entire  collec- 
tion— a  worthy  introduction  to  the  psalm  which 
stands  unchallenged  as,  above  all  the  rest,  the 
Huguenot  battle-song.  Sung  at  the  charge  at  many 
an  encounter  of  the  period  when  the  Huguenots 
were  at  their  strongest,  it  is  no  less  associated  in 
every  line  with  those  humbler  but  scarcely  less 
glorious  and  equally  heroic  conflicts  when,  in  the 
Camisard  war  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  "Child- 
ren of  God,"  as  they  styled  themselves,  having 
survived  the  supposed  overthrow  of  their  religion, 
dared  defy  the  arms  of  Louis  XIV. 

It  was  in  the  year  1533,  apparently,  that  the  first 
of  Clement  Marot's  translated  psalms  appeared  in 
print,  appended  to  the  former  part  of  that  curious 
work  of  the  Duchess  of  Alen^on,  only  sister  of 
Francis  I.,  entitled  Miroir  de  trcs  cJircstienne  prin- 
cesse  Marguerite  de  France.  This  was  the  sixth 
psalm  of  David,  whose  plaintive  cry  was  admirably 
reproduced  in  the  opening  verses,  "  Ne  vueilles  pas, 
O  Sire,"  etc.^ 

Six  years  later  came  out  at  Strassburg  what  has 
been  styled  the  first  edition  of  the  Protestant  psal- 
ter, containing  twelve  new  psalms  translated  by 
Marot,  but  strangely  enough  omitting  the  sixth, 
with  which  the  editor  or  publisher  seems  not  to 
have  been  acquainted.'^  Two  years  more  passed, 
and  in  1541  there  appeared  with  the  imprint  of  An- 

'  O.  Douen,  Clement  Marot  et  le  Psautier  huguenot,  ii.,  505. 
^  Ibid.,  i,,  302. 


1543]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  291 

vers  (Antwerp)  a  fuller  collection  of  thirty  psalms 
translated  by  Marot.'  Finally,  in  1543,  there  was 
given  to  the  world  by  Marot  the  entire  collection  of 
fifty  psalms,  with  which  his  activity  in  this  direction 
closed,  together  with  the  Song  of  Simeon  and  the 
Ten  Commandments,  as  well  as  one  or  two  versifica- 
tions such  as  the  Angelic  Salutation,  which  never 
found  a  permanent  place  in  the  Protestant  psalter.' 
It  was  to  this  publication  that  the  poet  prefixed  the 
poetical ' '  Letter  Addressed  to  the  Ladies  of  France  ' ' 
which  he  had  recently  written  to  persuade  his  fair 
readers  to  substitute  for  the  songs  of  love,  always 
worldly  and  often  foul,  with  which  their  abodes  re- 
sound, songs  of  quite  another  strain;  yet  songs  of 
Love  alone,  their  author  very  Love,  composing 
them  by  His  supreme  wisdom  (while  vain  man  has 
been  but  the  mere  writer),  and  having  conferred 
language  and  voice  to  sing  His  own  high  praises. 
Blessed  be  he,  exclaims  the  poet,  that  shall  live 
to  see  that  golden  age  when  God  alone  shall  be 
adored,  praised,  and  sung,  and  when  the  labourer  at 
his  plough,  the  teamster  on  the  road,  and  the  artisan 
in  his  shop  shall  lighten  their  toil  by  a  psalm  or 

^  Ibid.,  i.,  315. 

2  According  to  Douen  (i.,  413),  the  Angelic  Salutation  was  inserted 
in  some  editions  of  the  Huguenot  psalter  published  in  France,  even 
after  the  Venerable  Consistory  of  the  Church  of  Geneva,  doubtless 
jealous  of  the  worship  of  the  "Virgin  Mary  so  intimately  associated 
with  the  use  of  the  "  Ave  Maria"  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  had  or- 
dered its  removal  from  the  book  containing  the  psalms  and  ecclesi- 
astical prayers.  Marot  protested  without  avail  that,  the  Salutation 
being  a  part  of  Holy  Writ,  the  suppression  seemed  to  place  the 
Consistory's  authority  above  the  authority  of  the  Word  of  God, 


292  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

hymn ;  happy  he  that  shall  hear  the  shepherd  and 
the  shepherdess  in  the  wood  make  rocks  and  lakes 
echo  and  repeat  after  them  the  holy  name  of  their 
Creator.  The  whole  was  summed  up  in  the  clos- 
ing injunction  thus  to  hasten  the  coming  of  the 
golden  age. 

The  poem,  if  it  does  not  prove  that  its  author 
was  a  true  Huguenot  at  heart,  a  Protestant  by  deep 
conviction,  at  least  furnishes  evidence  that  he  was 
not  devoid  at  times  of  genuine  religious  feeling.' 

Clement  Marot  died  at  Turin  in  the  summer  of 
1544.  After  a  life  of  singular  variety,  in  which  his 
unconcealed  aversion  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
had  exposed  him  to  danger  and  imprisonment  in 
France,  and  led  him  to  sojourn  at  the  court  of  Duch- 
ess Renee  at  Ferrara,  and  for  a  time  in  Venice,  he 
spent  a  little  over  a  year  in  Geneva.  Not  only  did 
he  frequently  confer  with  Calvin  on  the  matter  of 
the  translation  of  the  psalms,  but  the  great  Reformer 
himself  recommended  the  council  of  the  city  to 
employ  him  at  public  expense  in  completing  the 
work.  The  council  rejected  the  application,  and 
Marot  withdrew  from  Geneva.  That  he  was  com- 
pelled to  do  so,  having  been  found  guilty  of  adul- 
tery and  escaping  only  through  Calvin's  intercession, 
seems  to  be  a  pure  fabrication  of  the  royal  historio- 
grapher Cayet,  who,  having  from  Protestant  turned 
Roman  Catholic,  was  not  unwilling  to  circulate 
stories  of  the  kind  against  the  poet  who  had  at- 
tacked his  newly  espoused  faith.  For  the  fact  is 
that  no  record  of  any  proceedings  against  Marot  has 

^  Ibid.,  i.,  396-393. 


1552]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  293 

been  found  on  the  Genevese  registers,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  known  that  the  penalty  for  the 
crime  of  adultery  had  not  as  yet  been  fixed  at  death, 
and  was  not  so  fixed  until  sixteen  years  after  Marot's 
death/ 

At  Clement  Marot's  death  the  Protestants  had  an 
incomplete  psalter,  consisting  of  barely  one  third  of 
the  whole  number  of  psalms,  and  these  not  continu- 
ous, but  with  certain  gaps.  A  writer  uniting  the 
requisites  of  a  faithful  translator  to  those  of  a  poet 
by  nature  it  was  not  easy  to  find.  Marot  had  no 
rival  during  his  lifetime,  nor  had  he  his  equal 
among  the  poets  that  survived  him ;  but  it  was 
natural  that,  under  the  circumstances,  the  eyes  of 
Calvin  and  of  others  should  turn  to  Beza.  The 
Juvenilia,  written  and  published  before  his  con- 
version, had  long  since  proved  him  to  possess  high 
literary  abilities.  He  was  himself  anxious  to  show 
that  these  abilities  could  be  employed  to  better  pur- 
pose than  when  the  ambition  to  rival  Ovid  and 
Catullus  reigned  supreme  in  his  breast.  Accord- 
ingly, within  about  two  years  from  the  date  of  his 
reaching  Lausanne,  that  is,  in  155 1,  we  find  Beza 
publishing  a  separate  collection  of  thirty-four  psalms. 
A  year  later  he  republished  these  in  connection  with 
forty-nine  of  those  which  Marot  had  translated. 
With  these  eighty-three  psalms  the  Protestant  psal- 
ter was  more  than  half-way  on  toward  completion. 
It  was  appropriate  that  Beza,  in  imitation  of  Marot, 
should  now  provide  it  with  a  poetic  letter  dedica- 
tory.    Marot  had  dedicated  his  psalms  to  his  patron, 

^  Ibid.^  i.,  416. 


294  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Francisl.,  and  had  written  to  the  "Ladies"  of  France 
to  incite  them  to  sing  these  in  lieu  of  worldly  songs. 
Beza  addressed  the  epistle  which  he  placed  at  the 
head  of  his  work  to  "  The  Church  of  our  Lord," 
the  **  little  flock"  which  in  its  littleness  surpasses 
the  greatness  of  the  world,  the  little  flock  "  held  in 
contempt  by  this  round  globe  and  yet  its  only  treas- 
ure."  The  choice  of  Beza  was  the  better,  and  he 
made  of  his  address,  regarded  by  some  writers  not 
without  reason  as  his  masterpiece,  so  excellent  an 
introduction  to  the  psalms  that  for  centuries  it  con- 
tinued to  hold  its  place  even  when  the  circumstances 
to  which  it  made  reference  had  long  since  faded 
from  the  memory  of  the  majority  of  the  faithful 
who  used  the  collection  in  their  devotions. 
The  exordium  is  calm  in  its  quiet  strength. 

"  Petit  Troupeau,  qui  en  ta  petitesse 
Vas  surmontant  du  monde  la  hautesse  ; 
Petit  Troupeau,  le  mespris  de  ce  monde, 
Et  seul  thresor  de  la  machine  ronde  ; 
Tu  es  celui  auquel  gist  mon  courage, 
Pour  te  donner  ce  mien  petit  ouvrage  : 
Petit,  je  di,  en  ce  qui  est  du  mien  ; 
Mais  au  surplus  si  grand,  qu'il  n'y  a  rien 
Assez  exquis  en  tout  cest  univers, 
Pour  esgaler  un  moindre  de  ces  vers. 
Voila  pourquoi  chose  tant  excellente 
A  toi,  sur  tout  excellent,  je  presented' 

Let  kings  and  princes,  clothed  in  gold  and  silver, 
but  not  in  virtues,  stand  back.  With  them  lying 
flatterers  fill  their  pages.  They  are  not  addressed 
here.  Not  that  they  are  not  spoken  to ;  but  they 
have  neither   ears   to  hear,   nor  heart  to  learn  the 


I55I]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  295 

message.  The  poem  is  for  those  other  true  kings 
and  true  princes,  worthy  to  possess  reahns  and  pro- 
vinces, potentates  who  beneath  the  shadow  of  their 
wings  defend  the  Hfe  of  many  a  poor  behever.  Let 
them  hear  the  enchanting  harp  of  the  great  David, 
and  being  kings  hearken  to  the  voice  of  a  king. 
Let  shepherds  Hsten  to  a  shepherd's  pipe  which 
God  Himself  was  pleased  to  sound.  Let  the  sheep 
catch  the  divine  music  which  communicates  both 
joy  and  healing.  Do  they  mourn  ?  They  shall  be 
comforted.  Do  they  hunger  ?  They  shall  be  filled. 
Do  they  endure  suffering  ?  They  shall  be  re- 
lieved. 

The  poet  was  writing,  as  I  have  said,  in  155 1, 
that  is,  in  the  midst  of  the  persecutions  under 
Henry  H.  That  very  year  the  monarch  published 
a  terrible  law  against  the  Protestants  of  his  realm. 
The  Edict  of  Chateaubriand,  of  June  27,  155 1,  we 
have  already  seen,' sent  the  new  heretics  straight  to 
the  flames  on  the  mere  sentence  of  an  ordinary 
judge,  and  cut  off  all  right  of  appeal.  Nor  was 
Geneva  forgotten  by  the  legislator.  As  Calvin  re- 
marked, that  city  was  honoured  with  a  mention  in 
the  ordinance  m.ore  than  ten  times.  The  importa- 
tion of  books  of  any  kind  from  Geneva,  and  from 
other  places  well  known  to  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  Papacy,  was  prohibited  under  severe  penalties. 
So  was  also  the  retention  by  booksellers  of  any  con- 
demned book,  as  well  as  clandestine  publications  in 
any  shape.  Every  printing  establishment  was  now 
subjected  to  a  visitation  twice  a  year,     The  great 

1  Supra^  73, 


296  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

fairs  of  Lyons  were  searched  three  times  a  year, 
because  it  had  been  discovered  that  many  suspected 
books  were  introduced  into  France  by  that  channel. 
In  fact  all  book  packages  from  abroad  were  to  be 
examined  by  the  clergy,  before  their  contents  could 
be  put  into  circulation.  Book-peddling  was  utterly 
forbidden,  on  the  ground  that  peddlers  from  Geneva 
smuggled  books  into  France  under  cover  of  dispos- 
ing of  other  merchandise.  It  became  a  punishable 
offence  to  be  the  bearer  of  a  simple  letter  from 
Geneva.  To  have  fled  thither  was  sufficient  to  lead 
to  confiscation  of  property,  and  the  informer  was 
promised  one  third  of  the  forfeited  goods.  So  re- 
solved was  the  king  to  extinguish  Protestantism 
once  for  all,  that  all  simple  folk  were  warned  not 
even  to  discuss  matters  of  faith,  the  sacraments,  and 
the  government  of  the  Church,  at  table,  in  the  fields, 
or  in  the  secret  meeting.^ 

Would  it  have  been  surprising,  when  Geneva  was 
thus  singled  out  for  special  hostility  by  the  malice 
of  Henry  II.,  had  Beza,  in  his  general  view  of  the 
enemies  of  the  "  little  flock,"  noticed  with  peculiar 
execration  the  king  of  his  native  land?  Yet,  while 
the  Pope  naturally  comes  in  for  mention,  as  "  the 
wolf  that  wears  the  triple  crown,  surrounded  by 
other  beasts  of  his  kind,"  the  poet  prefers  to  call 
attention  among  monarchs  only  to  the  good  King 
Edward  VI.,  of  England,  hospitably  greeting  on 
the  shores  of  his  insular  domain  the  fugitives  that 
have  escaped  the  fires  of  persecution.  For  him  he 
prays  that,  as  in  his  youth  he  has  already  surpassed 

^  3ee  Rise  oj^  the  Huguenots^  i,,  279-281, 


I55I]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  297 

all  other  kings,  so  in  his  advancing  years  he  may 
surpass  even  himself: 

"  Que  Dieu  te  doint,  O  Roy  qui  en  enfance 
As  surmonte  des  plus  grands  I'esperance, 
Croissans  tes  ans,  si  bien  croistre  en  ses  graces, 
Qu'  apres  tous  Rois  toi-mesme  tu  surpasse." 

But  the  poet's  thoughts  turned  by  preference  to 
the  victims  of  persecution  with  whom  the  prisons 
of  France  were  overflowing.  To  these  sufferers, 
Beza's  words  were  words  of  encouragement  to 
patience  and  endurance  in  the  profession  of  their 
faith,  with  the  lips,  if  speech  was  allowed  them,  if 
not,  let  courage  supply  a  testimony  which  the 
tongue  was  not  permitted  to  give.  After  which 
the  poet  enforces  his  injunction  with  a  couplet  that 
seems  to  anticipate  by  ten  years  the  famous  warn- 
ing which  this  same  Beza  made  to  the  recreant 
King  of  Navarre,  to  the  effect  that  the  Church  of 
God  is  indeed  an  anvil  to  receive  and  not  strike 
blows,  but  an  anvil  that  has  worn  out  many  ham- 
mers.^ Let  persecutors,  he  says,  tire  of  murdering 
God's  children  sooner  than  the  latter  tire  of  with- 
standing the  assaults  of  His  enemies: 

"  Que  les  tyrans  soyent  de  nous  martyrer 

Plustost  lassez  [lasses],  que  nous  de  I'endurer." 

The  remainder  of  the  "  Epistle  to  the  Church  of 
our  Lord  "  need  not  detain  us  long.  In  order  that 
no  one  should  have  an  excuse  for  not  singing  God's 
praise,  Marot,  says  Be^a,  turned  into  French  the 
psalms  once  written  by  David,  but,  alas!  died  when 

^  3ee  above,  208, 


298  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

he  had  completed  only  one  third  of  his  task.  What 
was  worse,  he  died  leaving  no  one  in  the  world,  no 
learned  poet,  to  continue  his  labours.  This  was  the 
reason  that  when  death  snatched  him  away,  with 
him  David  also  was  silent,  for  all  the  best  minds 
feared  to  try  their  hands  at  the  task  which  a  Marot 
had  undertaken.  What,  then,  someone  will  say, 
makes  you  so  brave  as  to  attempt  so  grave  a  work  ? 
To  which  question  Beza  replies  by  pleading  his  own 
consciousness  that  his  powers  fall  far  short  of  his 
good-will,  and  by  promising  to  applaud  the  efforts 
of  those  whom  he  would  incite  to  enter  upon  the 
same  office  and  perform  it  in  a  manner  more  worthy 
of  its  great  importance.  In  conclusion,  as  Clement 
Marot  had  begged  the  **  Ladies  "  to  cease  singing 
of  Cupid,  "  the  winged  god  of  love,"  and  give 
themselves  to  the  celebration  of  the  true,  the  Divine 
Love,  so  Beza  challenges  the  poets  of  his  time, 
those  "  minds  of  heavenly  birth,"  to  turn  from  the 
low  subjects  of  their  songs  to  themes  of  higher 
merit.  Let  the  time  past  suffice  to  have  followed 
such  vain  inventions,  and  objects  of  adoration  which 
shall  perish  with  the  works  of  their  adorers.  But 
whatever  others  may  conclude  to  do,  the  poet  de- 
clares that,  insignificant  as  he  is,  he  will  celebrate 
the  praises  of  his  God.  The  mountains  and  the 
fields  shall  be  witnesses,  the  shores  of  the  lake  shall 
repeat,  the  Alps  shall  take  up  the  cry  in  the  clouds. 

We  have  seen  that  in  1551  Beza  had  added  only 
thirty-four  psalms  to  those  translated  by  Marot,  and 
that  the   united   collection  comprised  but  eighty- 


1562]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  299 

three.  Eleven  years  more  passed  before  the  Gene- 
vese  Reformer  gave  to  the  world  (in  1562)  the 
remaining  sixty-seven,  and  thus  completed  the 
psalter.'  The  appearance  of  this  work  coincides  in 
time  with  most  striking  events  in  the  history  of  the 
French  Protestants,  and  itself  marks  a  singular  crisis 
in  their  fortunes. 

Up  to  this  date  the  psalms  in  the  vernacular  had 
been  almost  uniformly  proscribed  by  Church  and 
State.  The  singing  of  them  by  the  common  people 
was  taken  as  a  sure  sign  of  heresy.  It  is  true  that 
there  was  a  short  period  in  the  reign  of  Francis  I. 
when  they  seemed  to  be  in  high  favour  at  court. 
Charmed  by  the  rhythm,  or  by  the  music  to  which 
they  were  sung,  the  monarch  and  the  nobles  of  his 
suite  were  pleased  to  adopt  certain  psalms  as  their 
favourite  melodies,  quite  regardless  of  the  religious 
sentiment  expressed.  According  to  the  account  of 
a  contemporary,  a  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Ville- 
madon,  Francis  himself  was  so  much  pleased  with 
the  thirty  psalms  translated  by  Clement  Marot  and 
dedicated  to  the  king,  that  he  bade  the  poet  present 
his  work  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  who  in  turn 
set  high  store  by  the  translation,  rewarding  the 
author  with  a  gift  of  two  hundred  doubloons,  en- 
couraging him  to  complete  his  work,  and  asking 
him,  in  particular,  to  send  him  as  soon  as  possible 
his  version  of  the  psalm  "  O  give  thanks  unto  the 
Lord,  for  He  is  good;  for  His  mercy  endureth  for 
ever  "  (Ps.  cvii.).'^ 


Douen,  ii.,  523.  ^ /Md.,  i.,  317. 


300  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

The  dauphin,  the  future  Henry  II.,  showed  par- 
ticular fondness  for  the  psalms,  and  ordinarily  went 
about  singing  or  humming  them,  to  the  great  satis- 
faction, we  are  told,  of  all  good  and  pious  souls. 
Nothing  more  was  needed  to  induce  the  courtiers, 
and  even  the  king's  old  mistress,  Diana  of  Poitiers, 
to  pick  out  each  his  or  her  favourite  psalm,  and  beg 
of  the  dauphin  to  let  them  have  it,  to  his  no  small 
perplexity  as  to  which  one  of  them  he  should  thus 
gratify.  For  himself,  Henry,  as  yet  childless,  though 
he  had  been  married  to  Catharine  de'  Medici  for  not 
far  from  a  score  of  years,  chose  Marot's  rendering 
of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-eighth  psalm — a 
selection  dictated,  doubtless,  by  the  wish  that  he 
too  might  be  blessed  as  the  man  that  feared  the 
Lord,  his  wife  being  as  a  fruitful  vine  by  the  sides 
of  his  house,  and  his  children  like  olive  plants  round 
about  his  table.  It  was  about  the  same  time,  and 
for  a  similar  reason,  that  Catharine  de'  Medici  de- 
clared her  preference  for  the  one  hundred  and  forty- 
second  psalm  ("  I  cried  unto  the  Lord  with  my 
voice,"  etc.). 

The  short-lived  enthusiasm  of  the  court  for  the 
singing  of  the  psalms  had  little  or  no  effect  upon 
legislation.  For  nearly  twenty  years  after  this  time 
the  laws  against  the  use  of  the  psalter  in  the  ver- 
nacular continued  to  be  as  severe  and  were  as  per- 
sistently executed  as  ever.  It  was  not,  as  has  been 
said,  until  1562,  that  a  change,  induced  by  political 
considerations,  was  effected. 

For  two  years  and  more  France  had  seemed  to  be 
arousing  itself  from  the  sleep  of  ages  and  clamouring 


1562]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  301 

for  the  Word  of  God.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  1558, 
about  a  year  before  the  sudden  death  of  the  persecut- 
ing Henry  II.,  a  singular  and  unlooked-for  outbreak 
of  psalm-singing  took  place  in  the  heart  of  Paris  and 
on  the  favourite  promenade  of  the  best  society,  the 
so-called  Pre  aux  Clercs.  Here,  just  across  the 
Seine  from  the  Louvre,  it  happened  one  after- 
noon in  May  that  two  or  three  voices  started  the 
tune  of  one  of  the  proscribed  psalms.  In  an  instant 
other  voices  joined  in,  showing  that  the  words  and 
the  air  were  familiar  to  many,  and  soon  almost  the 
whole  body  of  promenaders — students,  gentlemen, 
ladies  among  the  rest — were  unitedly  celebrating 
God's  glory.  The  next  day,  and  the  next,  the 
thing  was  repeated.  There  were  said  at  last  to  be 
five  or  six  thousand  engaged  in  the  unlawful  act  of 
praising  the  Almighty  in  French,  among  them  many 
notable  personages  of  state,  including  the  King  and 
Queen  of  Navarre.  The  irregularity  did  not  escape 
the  notice  of  the  bigots  of  the  neighbouring  college 
of  the  Sorbonne,  the  theological  faculty  of  Paris; 
nor  did  they  rest  until  the  bishop  of  the  city  had 
called  the  attention  of  parliament  to  an  incident 
which  was  declared  to  tend  to  sedition,  public  com- 
motion, and  a  disturbance  of  the  public  peace. ^ 

Other  features  of  the  awakening  are  referred  to 
elsewhere,  and  need  not  be  recalled  here.  Let  it 
suffice  my  present  purpose  to  repeat  what  Montluc, 
Bishop  of  Valence,  said  in  his  famous  speech  in  the 
Assembly  of   Notables   held   at   Fontainebleau,    in 


See  Rise  of  the  Huguenots ,  i.,  314,  315. 


302  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

August,  1560,  while  the  old  laws  were  still  in  full 
force.  After  begging  the  young  king  (Francis  II.) 
to  have  daily  preaching  in  his  palace,  in  order  that 
the  mouths  of  those  might  be  closed  who  asserted 
that  God  was  never  spoken  of  among  those  about 
his  Majesty's  person,  the  prelate  turned  to  Catharine 
de'  Medici  and  Mary  of  Scots,  and  exclaimed : 

"  And  you,  Mesdames  the  Queens,  be  pleased  to  par- 
don me  if  I  venture  to  beg  you  to  command  that,  in  place 
of  silly  songs,  your  maids  and  all  your  suite  shall  sing 
only  the  psalms  of  David  and  the  spiritual  songs  that 
contain  the  praises  of  God.  And  remember  that  God's 
eye  searches  out  all  places  and  all  men  in  this  world,  but 
rests  nowhere  [with  favour]  save  where  His  name  is  in- 
voked, praised,  and  exalted."  "  And  hereupon,"  he 
added,  addressing  himself  to  the  king,  "  I  cannot  abstain 
from  saying  that  I  find  extremely  strange  the  view  of 
those  who  would  interdict  the  singing  of  the  psalms,  and 
who  give  occasion  to  the  seditious  to  say  that  we  are  no 
longer  fighting  against  men  but  against  God,  for  we 
strive  to  prevent  His  praises  from  being  proclaimed  and 
heard  by  all," 

This  he  followed  by  proof  which  it  would  have  been 
difficult  for  his  opponents  to  refute,  and  which  they 
took  good  care  not  to  notice.^ 

The  Guises  kept  the  good  advice  of  Montluc  and 
others  from  bearing  fruit,  but  the  movement  which 
he  represented  did  not  stay  its  course.  At  last  in 
September,  1561,  the  colloquy  came.  It  was  no 
longer  a  matter  of  doubt  that  a  considerable  body 


^  Recucil  des  Choses  Memorables  (1565),  295,  etc. 


CATHERINE   DE    MEDICIS. 

FROM    AN    ENGRAVING    IN    THE    PRINT-ROOM,    BRITISH    MUSEUM. 


1562]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  ^o^ 

of  people  in  France  had  espoused  the  doctrines  of 
the  Reformation;  although  it  had  not  yet  been  de- 
cided definitely  how  they  were  to  be  dealt  with. 
Then  it  was  that  a  few  weeks  before  the  publication 
of  the  tolerant  **  Edict  of  January,"  Beza  secured 
for  the  complete  psalter  translated  by  Clement 
Marot  and  himself  a  privUcge^  or  governmental 
authorisation  and  copyright.  The  date  of  its  issue 
was  December  26,  1561/ 

And  now  began  a  very  deluge  of  editions  of  the 
psalter  following  one  another  almost  without  inter- 
mission. Such  was  the  new  and  quickened  demand, 
that  it  was  difificult,  almost  impossible,  to  keep  up 
with  it.  Besides  other  issues  which  have  un- 
doubtedly escaped  notice,  we  know  of  twenty-five 
or  twenty-six  distinct  editions  that  were  put  out 
within  the  bounds  of  the  single  year  1562;  that  is, 
a  distinct  edition  on  the  average  for  every  fortnight. 
Six  different  printers  or  companies  of  printers  pub- 
lished nine  editions  in  the  city  of  Geneva  alone  for 
circulation  in  France.  Paris  was  not  far  behind 
with  seven  editions.  Lyons  had  three.  Saint  L6 
had  one.  Five  editions  were  without  designation 
of  place.  There  are  known  fourteen  editions  of 
1563,  ten  of  1564,  thirteen  of  1565 — in  all  more  than 
sixty  editions  in  four  years. ^  The  books  were  of  all 
sizes.  There  were  diminutive  volumes  and  stately 
folios.  No  other  book  of  the  period,  not  the  most 
fascinating  of  romances,  had  such  a  surprising  circu- 
lation.    It  was  not  curiosity  that  had  to  be  grati- 


Douen,  i.,  561.  ^  Ibid.^  i.,  561-563. 


304  Theodore  Beza  [151Q- 

fied ;  it  was  a  veritable  famine  for  the  Word  of  God 
that  had  to  be  satisfied.  The  men,  women,  and 
children  even  would  sing  the  psalms,  and  at  any 
price  they  must  have  the  books  containing  the 
psalms,  for  use  at  home,  in  the  shop,  especially  in 
over  two  thousand  congregations. 

That  the  Reformed  religion  gained  ground  in  no 
slight  extent  from  the  stress  that  was  laid  upon 
psalm-singing,  is  a  fact  that  cannot  be  ignored;  nor 
can  it  be  denied  that  the  psalms  themselves  owed 
much  of  their  power  to  the  suitable  and  attractive 
music  to  which  they  were  set.  In  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic churches  the  psalms  were  indeed  repeated,  but  in 
a  language  not  understood  by  the  laity,  being  mono- 
tonously chanted  by  the  clergy.  The  enemies  of 
the  Protestants  might  inveigh  against  the  novelty 
of  permitting  every  worshipper  to  take  part  in  what 
was  the  priest's  prerogative  by  immemorial  usage. 
They  mj'ght  with  Florimond  de  Rsemond  condemn 
and  ridicule  as  incongruous,  if  not  positively  inde- 
corous and  profane,  the  very  idea  that  these  holy 
compositions  of  David  the  king  should  be  transferred 
from  the  church  to  the  workshops  of  artisans;  that 
the  cobbler  as  he  sewed  shoes  should  sing  the 
divine  "  Miserere  "  (the  fifty-first  psalm)  at  his 
bench,  or  the  blacksmith  as  he  smote  upon  the  anvil, 
drone  the  solemn  "  De  Profundis  "  (the  one  hundred 
and  thirtieth  psalm),  or  the  baker  hum  some  other 
psalm  at  his  oven.  They  might  make  much  of  the 
confusion  arising  in  a  great  congregation  when  in 
one  part  of  the  vast  building  in  which  they  were 
assembled   the   singers  were   engaged   in   repeating 


1562]  The  Huguenot  Psalter  305 

one  verse  and  in  a  distant  part  a  different  one,  the 
leader  being  unable  by  use  of  hands  or  feet  to  bring 
them  into  unison.  They  n:iight  protest  that  not  with- 
out reason  had  the  Catholic  Church  prohibited  the 
promiscuous,  rash,  and  indiscreet  use  of  those  holy 
and  divine  hymns  dictated  to  David  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  Himself,  on  the  ground  that  the  worship  of  God 
is  not  to  be  mingled  with  our  ordinary  actions,  unless 
with  an  attention  and  reverence  bred  of  honour  and 
respect,  and  that  a  boy  ought  not  to  be  permitted 
to  delight  himself  at  his  work  with  the  psalms  as 
with  a  pastime,  in  the  midst  of  vain  and  frivolous 
thoughts.  They  might  question  whether  when,  in 
the  smaller  congregations,  the  maidens  raised  their 
sweet  voices  in  song,  their  hearts  were  as  firmly 
directed  to  God  as  both  the  hearts  and  the  eyes 
of  the  listening  youth  were  riveted  upon  the  fair 
singers.'  Whatever  the  jealous  enemies  of  the 
Protestants  and  their  worship  might  affirm  or  sus- 
pect, at  least  they  could  not  deny  that  in  the  popu- 
lar use  of  the  psalms  lay  a  most  attractive  feature 
of  the  Protestant  service. 

The  celebrity  attained  by  Beza  as  a  translator  of 
the  psalms  led  the  national  synods  of  France  to 
look  to  him  for  help  when  the  need  was  felt  of  en- 
riching the  worship  of  God's  house  with  additional 
hymns.  Late  in  the  century,  the  thirteenth  national 
synod,  meeting  at  Montauban  in  1594,  requested 
him  "  to  translate  into  French  rhyme  the  Hymns 
of  the  Bible,  for  the  purpose  of  their  being  sung  in 

^  Flor.  de  Raemond,  ii,,  555,  625,  626. 


3o6  Theodore  Beza  [1595 

the  church  together  with  the  Psalms. "  *  Four  years 
later,  the  fifteenth  synod,  of  Montpellier,  inserted 
in  its  records  a  minute  to  the  effect  that  *'  as  regards 
the  Hymns  of  the  Bible  which  have  been  put  in 
rhyme  by  Monsieur  de  B^ze,  at  the  request  of 
several  synods,  they  shall  be  sung  in  the  families  to 
train  the  people  and  incline  them  to  make  public 
use  of  them  in  our  churches;  but  this  regulation 
shall  have  effect  only  until  the  next  national 
synod."  "" 

The  fact,  however,  seems  to  be  that  the  Hugue- 
nots took  less  kindly  to  these  later  poetical  produc- 
tions of  the  venerable  author  than  to  his  early  efforts. 
The  hymns,  sixteen  in  number,  appeared  in  1595, 
but  promptly  fell  into  disuse.  On  the  other  hand, 
Marot's  and  Beza's  psalms  retained  their  place  in 
the  love  of  the  Huguenots,  throughout  the  checkered 
existence  of  French  Protestantism,  though  with 
many  verbal  alterations  dictated  by  changes  in  the 
French  language,  down  almost  to  our  own  times. 


Aymon,    Tons  Ics  Synodes,  i.,  1S5.  ^  Ibid,  i.,  219. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
beza's  contributions  to  history 

THEODORE  BEZA'S  direct  contributions  to 
historical  science  were  few.  He  was  a  scholar 
and  a  teacher  first,  and  by  preference ;  afterwards  a 
man  of  action  through  the  strength  of  his  convic- 
tions and  the  force  of  providential  circumstances. 
As  a  teacher  he  wrote  to  inform  and  convince  others, 
and  readily  passed  from  the  field  of  calm  and  quiet 
instruction  into  the  field  of  controversy,  that  he 
might  refute  and  silence  those  who  held  different 
views  from  his,  and  who  undertook  to  maintain 
these  views  by  argument.  As  the  man  of  action  he 
was  chiefly  concerned  with  the  future  of  the  great 
cause  to  which  he  had  deliberately  sacrificed  every 
prospect  of  wealth  and  promotion  in  his  native 
country.  Present  duties  left  him  little  time  to  look 
backward,  had  his  tastes  inclined  him  so  to  do.  The 
nearest  approach  that  Beza  ever  made  to  entering 
upon  the  writing  of  history  was  a  sketch  dashed 
off  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  and  with  a  distinct 
bearing  upon  present  controversies.  I  have  already 
had  occasion  to  refer  to  the  Life  of  Calvin,  as  a 
tribute  of  filial  love  and  respect  to  one  whom  he  held 
above  all  others  to  be  entitled  to  the  appellation  of 

307 


o 


08  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 


father.  Melchior  Wolmar  alone  could  have  dis- 
puted with  John  Calvin  the  claim  to  be  Beza's  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  parent.  But  great  as  was 
Beza's  indebtedness  to  him  who  had  emancipated 
his  higher  powers  from  the  slavery  of  ignorance  and 
superstition,  and  implanted  a  thirst  for  the  truth,  it 
was  to  the  wonderful  hold  that  Calvin  took  upon 
him  that  was  due  the  mysterious  change  that  made 
of  Beza  a  true  Reformer  qualified  to  take  up  the 
onerous  work  of  leader  of  the  Church  of  Geneva 
and  preeminently  the  counsellor  of  French  Pro- 
testantism. 

The  Life  of  Calvin  breathes  in  every  line  the  deep 
affection  and  unbounded  reverence  in  which  his 
biographer  holds  him.  It  is  no  blind  panegyric, 
but  a  eulogy  based  on  firm  conviction.  The  writer's 
contention  is  contained  in  two  or  three  sentences: 

"  It  can  be  affirmed  (and  all  those  that  have  known 
him  will  be  good  and  sufficient  witnesses  to  the  truth  of 
this),  that  never  has  Calvin  had  an  enemy  who,  in  assail- 
ing him,  has  not  waged  war  against  God.  For  from  the 
time  that  God  introduced  His  champion  into  the  lists,  it 
may  well  be  said  that  Satan  has  selected  him,  as  though 
having  forgotten  all  the  other  challengers,  for  the  object 
of  his  assault,  and  has  sought  to  bring  him,  if  possible, 
to  the  ground.  On  the  other  hand,  God  has  shown  him 
this  favour,  that  He  has  conferred  on  him  as  many  trophies 
as  he  has  had  enemies  opposed  to  him.  If  therefore  an 
inquiry  be  instituted  into  the  combats  he  has  rustained 
from  within  for  doctrine's  sake,  nothing  can  make  them 
appear  slight  but  the  diligence  he  has  used  so  as  not  to 
give  his  enemies  leisure  to  recover  their  breath,  and  the 


1564]  Contributions  to  History  309 

steadfastness  God  has  conferred  on  him  never  to  yield, 
be  it  ever  so  little,  in  the  Lord's  quarrel."  ' 

In  carrying  on  these  struggles  with  God's  enemies, 
of  whom  Beza  gives  the  formidable  list,  and  where- 
with he  occupies  many  pages  of  his  treatise,  he  does 
not  deny  that  the  subject  of  his  biography  was 
vehement  and  by  nature  prone  to  anger,  but  main- 
tains that  that  vehemence  in  God's  service  assumed 
a  truly  prophetic  type  and  invested  him  with  a 
majesty  apparent  to  all. 

"  Those  who  shall  read  his  writings  and  shall  seek  the 
glory  of  God  in  uprightness,  will  there  behold  the  shin- 
ing of  the  majesty  whereof  I  speak,"  says  the  admiring 
writer.  "  As  for  those  who  at  the  present  time  treat  re- 
ligion as  they  treat  political  affairs,  being  colder  than  ice 
in  regard  to  the  affairs  of  God,  more  aflame  than  fire  in 
what  concerns  themselves,  and  call  anger  everything  that 
is  more  frankly  said  than  pleases  them  ;  as  he  never  tried 
to  please  that  kind  of  people,  I  also  shall  make  it  a 
matter  of  conscience  not  to  amuse  myself  with  answer- 
ing them.  What  then  would  these  wise  men  say, 
these  men  so  moderate  (provided  that  God  alone  be 
in  question),  if  they  had  had  experience  of  such  anger 
from  closer  at  hand  ?  I  feel  confident  that  they  would 
have  been  as  much  displeased  as  I  myself  esteem,  and 
shall  all  my  life  long  esteem,  myself  happy  to  have  been 
the  hearer  of  so  great  and  rare  an  excellence,  both  in 
public  and  in  private."^ 

'  Discours  de  Theodore  de  Beze  contenant  en  bref  Vhistoirc  de  la 
vie  et  inort  de  maitre  Jean  Calvin.  In  CEuvres  Francoises  de  Cal- 
vin (Paris,  1S42),  4. 

^Ibid.,  18. 


3i<^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

To  Theodore  Beza  has  been  commonly  ascribed 
the  authorship  of  an  extensive  work  that  appeared 
in  three  volumes  at  Antwerp  in  1580.  The  title  in 
translation  reads:  *'  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the 
Reformed  Churches  in  the  Kingdom  of  France; 
wherein  are  truthfully  described  their  revival  and 
growth  from  the  year  1521  until  the  year  1563,  their 
laws  or  discipline,  synods,  persecutions  both  general 
and  particular,  the  names  and  labours  of  those  who 
have  happily  toiled,  the  cities  and  places  where 
they  were  established,  with  the  account  of  the  first 
troubles  or  civil  wars." 

Of  the  value  of  this  history  too  much  cannot  be 
said.  It  is  the  earliest,  as  it  is  the  fullest,  account 
of  the  first  forty  years  of  the  Reformation  in  France. 
It  is  accurate,  thorough,  authentic.  There  is  no  pre- 
tence of  anything  like  fine  writing,  the  author  being 
quite  content  with  the  simple  statement  of  events  as 
they  occurred.  This  being  its  object,  its  author  has 
not  hesitated  to  incorporate  into  his  narrative  ex- 
tensive passages  in  which  the  phraseology  agrees 
word  for  word  with  passages  in  other  contemporary 
Huguenot  writings,  such  as  the  Histoirc  de  r  Est  at 
de  France  sons  le  Regne  de  Franqois  11. ,  attributed 
to  Regnier  de  la  Flanche,  the  Coniuientaires  of 
Pierre  de  la  Place,  the  Martyrology  of  Jean  Crespin, 
and  others.  Documents  of  importance  are  inserted 
without  change  or  abridgment.  The  stories  of  the 
growth  and  development  of  individual  churches  are 
reproduced  apparently  in  the  very  words  of  the  local 
accounts  forwarded  to  Geneva  or  Paris.  In  short, 
it  is  a  compilation  laboriously  and  judiciously  made. 


i58o]  Contributions  to  History  311 

the    general    trustworthiness    of   which    has    been 
established  beyond   controversy    by    a   comparison 
with  information  derived  from  other  sources,  and, 
within  our  own  days,  more  than  once  corroborated 
by  the  unexpected  discovery  of  ofificial  documents 
long  hidden  from  the  knowledge  of  men.  '  Who  the 
true  author  was  will  perhaps  never  be  known.     It 
was  certainly  not  Beza,  although  he  was  a  friend  of 
Beza  and  doubtless  received  much  help  from  Beza 
in  the  collection  of  materials  for  the  composition  of 
the  work.     This  is  evident  from  a  mere  inspection 
of  the  book  itself.     The  writer  speaks  of  Beza  uni- 
formly in  the  third  person.      He  is  prevented  by  no 
feeling  of  modesty  from  praising  Beza's  great  speech 
at  Poissy,  asserting  that  it  was  delivered  in  a  man- 
ner very  agreeable  to  all  those  who  were  present,  as 
the  most  difficult  to  please  subsequently  admitted, 
and  that  it  was  listened  to  with  remarkable  attention 
until  the  orator  reached  the  point  in  his  discourse 
which  the  prelates  chose  to  make  an  occasion  for 
their  noisy  interruption.'     He  refers  to  conversations 
which  he  had  himself  held  with  Beza ;  as  where  he 
says:  **  Beza  made  no  answer  for  the  moment  be- 
cause, as  I  have  since  heard  him  say,  he  was  satisfied 
with  replying  to  the  chief  point  without  touching 
upon  what  was  accessory."  '     He  inserts  an  address 
made  by  Beza  to  Queen  Catharine  de'  Medici  in  the 
name  of  the  Protestant  ministers  in  the  great  coun- 
cil chamber  of  the  castle  of  Saint  Germain,  prefacing 
it  with  the  remark  that  it  was  "  as  follows,  so  far  as 


I  Histoire  Eccle's,,  i.,  578,  ^  Ibid.,  i.,  646, 


312  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

could  be  gathered."  '  But  the  inference  drawn 
from  the  contents  of  the  work  that  it  was  written  by 
someone  else  than  Beza  is  converted  into  certainty 
by  a  passage  in  a  letter  to  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
from  the  hand  of  Beza  himself,  who,  in  sending  a 
copy  of  the  history,  soon  after  its  publication,  com- 
mends it  both  for  its  substance  and  for  the  fidelity 
and  absence  of  all  literary  embellishment  with  which 
it  is  written,  "although  the  author  has  suppressed 
his  name,  fearing  that  truest  of  sayings,  *  Truth 
begets  hatred.'  "  ^ 

Somewhat  more  than  a  mere  collection  of  eulogies, 
yet  decidedly  less  than  a  series  of  unprejudiced 
biographies,  was  a  book,  the  genuine  work  of  Beza, 
that  saw  the  light  of  day  in  the  same  year  1580. 
It  bore  the  title  hones  (Images),  with  a  sub-title 
showing  that  it  consisted  of  "  True  Portraits  of  the. 
men,  illustrious  for  learning  and  piety,  by  whose 
ministry  chiefly,  on  the  one  hand,  the  studies  of 
good  letters  were  restored,  and,  on  the  other,  true 
religion  was  renewed  in  various  regions  of  the  Christ- 
ian world  within  our  memory  and  that  of  our  fathers ; 
with  the  addition  of  descriptions  of  their  life  and 
works."  It  was  a  veritable  gallery  wherein  the 
reader  seemed  to  pass  successively  in  front  of 
not  far  from  one  hundred  picture-frames,  intended 
to  be  filled  by  correct  representations  of  the  most 
famous  characters  of  the  modern  religious  world. 
The  desire  of  the  author  had  indeed  outrun  his 
ability.      Over  one  half    of    the  places  were  unoc- 


Jbld,,  i.,  781.  Mieppe,  382,  383, 


i58o]  Contributions  to  History  313 

cupied,  and  the  descriptions  confronted  blank  spaces 
which  the  reader  was  exhorted,  if  possible,  to  supply 
with  the  necessary  canvases.  None  the  less  were 
the  rude  delineations  of  the  more  fortunate  subjects 
calculated  to  deepen  in  the  reader's  mind  the  im- 
pression made  by  those  heroic  characters  that  had 
played  a  prominent  part  in  the  religious  affairs  of 
the  century.  A  few  representatives  of  earlier  cent- 
uries were  there  in  their  appropriate  places — the 
forerunners  or  advance-guard  in  the  great  proces- 
sion,— Wyclif,  Hus,  Jerome  of  Prague,  and  Savon- 
arola; but  the  majority  were  men  of  contemporary 
times,  or,  at  least,  of  times  within  the  memory  of 
men  still  alive.  To  anyone  that  remembers  the 
close  connection  which  the  Reformers  always  recog- 
nised as  existing  between  the  progress  of  letters  and 
the  advance  of  pure  religion,  it  will  not  be  startling 
to  find  occupying  no  inconspicuous  place  not  only 
the  great  humanist  Erasmus,  of  Rotterdam,  in  com- 
pany with  his  rival  Reuchlin,  but  Francis  I.,  of 
France,  as  the  patron  of  learning  and  of  the  Renais- 
sance, with  the  corps  of  literary  men  with  whom  he 
and  his  sister  surrounded  themselves — Bude,  Va- 
table,  and  Toussain— while  Michel  de  1' Hospital, 
Scaliger,  and  the  great  printer  Robert  Etienne,  or 
Stephens,  were  not  far  off.  Clement  Marot,  the 
translator  of  one  third  of  the  psalter,  had  his  own 
place  as  a  reward  for  "  the  extreme  usefulness  to 
the  Churches  of  the  work  which  he  had  accom- 
plished, a  work  deserving  eternal  remembrance"; 
despite  the  fact,  recorded  by  his  appreciative  con- 
tinuator,  that  the  poet  had  never,  even  to  the  last 


SH  Theodore  Beza  [1587 

days  of  his  life,  amended  his  bad  morals,  acquired 
during  a  protracted  residence  at  court,  that  worst 
of  teachers  of  piety  and  honourable  deportment. 
Apart  from  the  pictorial  illustrations,  the  hones, 
notwithstanding  the  brevity  of  the  sketches,  con- 
stitute an  important  source  of  trustworthy  informa- 
tion, to  which  we  willingly  admit  our  indebtedness 
on  more  than  one  occasion.  For  if  the  spirit  of 
high  appreciation  pervades  the  work,  the  words  of 
panegyric  are,  for  the  most  part,  reserved  for  the 
epigrams  that  are  interspersed — a  species  of  com- 
position to  which  Beza  was  much  addicted  even 
down  to  his  latest  years. 

No  more  convenient  place  than  this  may  occur  to 
make  a  passing  reference  to  the  circumstance  that 
Beza  interested  himself  in  the  matter  of  the  correct 
pronunciation  both  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  langua- 
ges and  of  the  French,  and  published  short  treatises 
on  the  subject  of  the  first  two  in  the  years  1580  and 
1587,  and  of  the  third  in  1584.  This  last  treatise, 
of  which  copies  have  now  become  so  extremely 
scarce  as  to  be  practically  unobtainable,  possesses  a 
real  value  as  a  historical  discussion  of  the  fluctua- 
tions of  Beza's  native  tongue. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

BEZA   THE   PATRIOTIC    PREACHER — BEZA   AND 
HENRY   IV. 'S   APOSTASY 

1 590-1 593 

THE  patriotism  which  Beza  had  always  exhibited 
in  behalf  of  the  little  commonwealth  which  he 
chose  to  be  his  adopted  country,  had  a  fresh  oppor- 
tunity to  display  itself  in  the  new  dangers  that 
menaced  Geneva  in  the  years  from  1590  to  1592. 
The  peril  came  from  the  persistent  efforts  of  an  im- 
placable enemy,  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  To  the  ex- 
posure to  actual  warfare  were  added  the  discomfort 
and  losses  of  a  state  of  virtual  siege,  emphasised 
from  time  to  time  by  an  approach  to  a  real  famine 
of  bread.  There  was  dissension  at  home.  If  the 
greater  part  of  the  citizens  did  not  falter  in  their 
purpose,  there  was  no  lack  of  faint-hearted  men, 
even  among  the  citizens,  men  who  would  have  been 
glad  to  purchase  safety  with  submission.  But  in 
the  crisis  of  the  peril  the  voice  of  Beza  was  raised 
in  no  irresolute  tones  proclaiming  from  the  old  pul- 
pit of  the  church  of  Saint  Pierre  the  same  doctrine 
that  he  had  advocated  more  than  a  generation 
before.      The  sermons  which  he  preached — he  bc- 

315 


3i6  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

lieved  they  would  be  his  last — were  intended  to  be 
a  testimony  and,  so  to  speak,  a  testament  containing 
a  final  recapitulation  of  the  teaching  of  a  lifetime. 
He  inculcated,  on  the  one  hand,  repentance  and 
amendment  of  life  in  the  sight  of  God,  and,  on  the 
other,  a  bold  and  unflinching  maintenance  of  the 
rights  and  the  liberties  of  the  republic.  The  war 
was  unavoidable.  It  was  also  just,  because  waged 
in  self-defence.  Seldom  has  an  orator  of  threescore 
years  and  ten  more  vigorously  or  more  eloquently 
set  forth  the  motives  for  a  hearty  and  hopeful  prose- 
cution of  an  honourable  struggle.  Let  me  give  a 
single  passage  which  has  deservedly  called  forth  the 
admiration  of  an  acute  writer  of  recent  times,*  who, 
referring  to  its  construction  formed  altogether  on 
classical  models,  well  observes  that  we  might  almost 
fancy  that  we  were  listening  in  Athens  itself  to  the 
voice  of  Pericles  exhorting  his  fellow-citizens  to 
persevere  in  carrying  on  the  Peloponnesian  War. 

"  Humanly  speaking,"  says  Beza,  "  common  sense  of 
itself  teaches  us  to  lay  down  life  for  the  salvation  of  our 
country  and  for  a  just  freedom.  And,  before  going  any 
farther,  people  of  Geneva,  how  often,  in  conflict  against 
the  same  enemies,  have  your  fathers,  when  reduced  to 
the  last  extremity,  maintained  very  bravely  that  liberty 
which  they  have  left  you — a  liberty  which  I  also  hope 
and  dare  assure  myself  that,  with  the  Lord's  help,  you 
will  preserve  to  the  very  end  !  And  this  for  a  reason 
still  more  just  than  that  which  all  your  predecessors  had. 
For,  not   to   mention   the   yoke   of  a  miserable  slavery 

^  A.  Sayous,  Etudes  Litter  aires  sur  les  Ecrivains  Fran^ais  de  la 
Reformation^  i,,  306. 


1592]  The  Patriotic  Preacher  317 

which  men  would  impose  upon  us,  it  is  God's  glory  and 
truth,  it  is  our  souls,  our  conscience,  our  eternal  salva- 
tion that  are  now  at  stake,  whatever  colour  or  pretext 
may  be  alleged  to  the  contrary.  As  for  all  the  fine 
promises  that  may  be  made  to  you  on  this  point,  have 
you  not  made  proof  enough  of  what  the  good  faith  and 
the  honesty  of  those  with  whom  you  have  to  do  amount 
to  ?  And  as  to  us,  gathered  here  from  so  many  different 
places,  who  have  found  here  not  an  Egypt,  but  all  gen- 
tleness and  kindness,  can  it  be  that  there  should  be  found 
one  in  the  midst  of  us  that  would  consent,  in  so  cowardly 
a  manner  and  with  such  base  ingratitude,  to  leave  the 
home  under  the  shelter  of  which  we  have  been  received, 
rather  than  show  by  our  deeds,  and  until  the  last  breath 
of  life,  that  it  was  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  alone,  and 
the  desire  to  be  fed  with  His  holy  Word,  and  to  serve 
Him  purely,  that  made  us  renounce  all  the  advantages 
of  this  world  in  order  to  obtain  that  pearl  of  great  price 
which  we  have  found  and  which  illuminates  us  in  this 
place  ?  I  do  not  believe  it,  nor  is  it  this  that  leads  me  to 
speak.  I  speak  solely  for  the  purpose  of  persuading 
those  that  may  be  in  doubt,  and  confirming  those  that 
may  in  any  way  be  wavering. 

"But  let  us  consider  whether  the  difficulties  are  such 
and  so  great  as  they  are  represented  to  be.  If  it  be  a 
question  of  provisions,  it  cannot  be  said  that  there  is  a 
lack  as  yet.  If  in  this  circumstance  we  do  not  recognise 
the  great  and  extraordinary  kindness  of  God,  experienced 
more  than  once  within  a  few  years,  when  not  only  war, 
but  famine,  from  far  and  near,  threatened  to  be  imme- 
diately upon  us,  shall  we  not  deserve  by  our  ingratitude 
that  what  we  fear  and  still  worse  may  befall  us  ?  I  ask, 
upon  his  conscience,  if  there  is  a  person  in  this  assembly 
who,   had   he  thought   that  this   war   would    last    three 


3i8  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

months  only,  would  have  dared  to  promise  himself  that 
there  would  be  a  market  for  the  purchase  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life  in  Geneva?  Yet  God  has  brought  this  to 
pass  and  still  continues  it,  after  the  loss  of  harvest  and 
vintage,  after  so  many  fires  and  the  devastation  of  the 
whole  region.  And  what  shall  make  us  distrustful  re- 
specting the  future,  if  it  be  not  forgetfulness  of  the  past  ? 
What  !  shall  those  miserable  Parisians  and  other  con- 
spirators against  their  king  go  so  far  as  to  eat  their 
horses  and  asses,  instead  of  renouncing  what  they  have 
so  miserably  undertaken,  and  can  it  be  that  we  should 
lose  courage  so  soon  in  so  just  and  necessary  a  defence 
of  our  property,  our  lives,  and  our  souls  ? 

"  Our  money  has  given  out.  Perhaps  our  enemy  is 
not  in  less  perplexity  than  we  are.  But,  however  that 
may  be,  He  that  has  provided  for  us  hitherto  is  not  dead, 
He  will  never  die.  And  were  those  to  fail  us  who  serve 
us  only  for  money's  sake,  let  us  boldly  say  that  we  should 
have  lost  nothing  whereon  we  ought  to  have  leaned.  A 
single  man  armed  with  faith  toward  God,  with  zeal  for 
His  glory,  and  with  love  of  his  country,  will  be  worth  a 
thousand  hirelings.  The  chief  captains  are  confined  to 
their  beds  in  consequence  of  disease  or  wounds.  So  be 
it  ;  God  will  raise  them  up  again  when  it  shall  please 
Him,  and  when  they  shall  be  needed.  We  shall  then 
have  learned  from  experience  more  than  once,  to  the 
great  astonishment  of  the  captains  themselves,  that  the 
arm  of  the  God  of  hosts  is  not  dependent  upon  either 
the  prudence  and  experience  of  captains  or  the  valour 
of  soldiers  to  such  a  degree  that  He  cannot  do  His 
work  all  by  Himself,  when  it  so  pleases  Him.  And  when 
will  it  please  Him  ?  When  those  who  fear  Him  and 
trust  in  Him  have  need. 

"  We  have  been  twice  beaten  with  rods  within  a  few 


t592]  The  Patriotic  Preacher  3x9 

days  ;  but  let  not  our  enemies  boast.  It  is  neither  their 
courage  nor  their  strength  that  has  done  this,  but  our 
fault  and  rashness.  To  go  back  to  the  source  of  this 
disaster,  it  is  our  too  great  and  long-continued  errors 
that  God  has  determined  to  chastise  very  lightly  and  for 
our  great  good,  if  He  be  pleased  to  grant  us  grace  to 
amend  our  ways.  The  ten  tribes  of  Israel  in  the  very 
just  and  necessary  war  against  Benjamin  lost  forty  thou- 
sand men  in  two  battles  ;  yet  they  did  not  desist  and 
happily  accomplished  what  they  had  justly  begun.  And, 
I  pray  you,  ought  this  sortie,  which  met  with  poor  suc- 
cess in  consequence  of  our  great  mistake,  to  have  more 
power  to  astonish  us  and  lead  us  to  adopt  disorderly 
plans  than  over  six  stout  and  stiff  encounters  against  a 
larger  force  of  our  adversary  shall  have  to  encourage  us 
when  we  have  God  before  us  and  with  us  ?  If  the  Lord 
demands  our  lives  as  a  sacrifice  for  His  glory,  what 
greater  happiness  could  we  desire  than  to  pass  from  this 
life  into  life  everlasting  in  so  just  a  defence  of  the  cause 
of  the  Lord  and  of  our  country  together  ?  And  those 
who,  by  reason  of  a  lack  of  the  true  and  holy  steadfast- 
ness of  which  we  speak,  may  be  disposed  through  cow- 
ardice to  abandon  our  standard,  whereon  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  inscribed,  whither  shall  they  flee  to  Escape 
from  His  hands  ? 

"  Now  this  is  not  spoken,  my  brethren,  for  the  purpose 
of  trumpeting  the  war,  to  which  may  our  good  God  and 
Father  be  pleased  to  put  a  good  and  happy  end.  But  in 
order  that  we  may  reach  it,  let  us  not  take  counsel  of 
distrust  or  of  an  inordinate  apprehension  of  the  difficul- 
ties that  offer.  But  knowing  how  we  entered  upon  the 
war,  let  us  commit  ourselves  to  Him  who  is  the  safe 
refuge  of  the  oppressed  and  who  requites  the  proud  and 
ambitious.     Let  us  acknowledge  and  correct  the  faults 


3^0  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

because  of  which  what  had  been  well  and  holily  resolved 
upon  has  not  always  been  carried  out  in  like  manner. 
Let  us  ask  Him  for  the  increase  of  zeal  unto  His  glory, 
and  of  the  faith  needed  in  the  midst  of  such  tempests, 
that  we  be  not  swallowed  up  of  them,  but  reach  the 
haven  through  all  these  winds  and  storms.  Let  us  not 
join  His  arm  to  the  arm  of  flesh  ;  but  commit  ourselves 
to  Him  with  such  prudence  as  it  may  please  Him  to 
give  us,  as  well  respecting  the  means  as  respecting  the 
time  of  our  deliverance.  Let  us  keep  bound  and  close, 
first  to  Him,  the  strongest  of  the  strong,  and  then  to  one 
another,  by  a  true  mutual  love,  so  as  at  last  to  say  with 
David  :  '  I  waited  patiently  for  the  Lord,  and  He  inclined 
unto  me.'  So  doing,  what  have  we  to  fear,  since  God  is 
for  us,  and  death  itself  is  made  for  us  the  entrance  into 
the  true  life  ?  Otherwise,  we  must  needs  come  to  what 
was  published  in  the  camp  of  God's  people  in  the  matter 
of  war  :  '  What  man  is  there  that  is  fearful  and  faint- 
hearted ?  let  him  go  and  return  unto  his  house,  lest  his 
brethren's  heart  melt  as  well  as  his  heart.'  But  I  dare 
to  hope  that  none  such  shall  be  found,  and  that  rather 
the  great  God  of  hosts  will  show  us  His  great  wonders. 
Amen."  ^ 

It  is  a  somewhat  singular  circumstance  that  so 
staunch  a  Protestant,  so  fearless  an  advocate  of  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation  as  Theodore  Beza 
should  have  been  misrepresented  as  actually  ap- 
proving, if  not  applauding,  the  act  of  apostasy  by 
which  Henry  IV.  secured  undisputed  possession  of 
the  crown  of  France  at  the  price  of  the  denial  of  his 
conscientious  convictions.     Still  more  strange  is  it 


Sayous,  i.,  308-314. 


1593]  Apostasy  of  Henry  IV  321 

that  it  is  not  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  a  Protestant 
biographer  of  the  Reformer  and  a  writer  of  no  mean 
repute,  Friedrich  Christoph  Schlosser,  who  makes 
the  paradoxical  assertion,  maintaining  that  Beza 
gave  a  signal  proof  that  he  was  far  removed  from  a 
blind  fanaticism,  in  that,  instead  of  lamenting  the 
king's  defection,  he  regarded  that  defection  as  a 
necessary  step  to  heal  the  wounds  of  a  country  rent 
asunder  by  religious  dissension/ 

In  point  of  fact,  so  far  from  acquiescing  in  Henry's 
defection,  Beza  opposed  it  with  all  his  might.  Using 
the  freedom  of  an  old  friend,  he  wrote  earnestly  in 
advance  to  dissuade  the  king  from  showing  any 
weakness.  His  letter  has  been  brought  to  light  and 
shows  that  Beza,  at  seventy-four  years  of  age,  had 
lost  none  of  his  old-time  vigour.  Apprehending  the 
increasing  severity  of  the  attacks  to  which  Henry 
would  certainly  be  exposed  in  the  conference  with 
the  Roman  Catholic  prelates  for  which  the  time  of 
meeting  was  already  determined  upon,  the  Reformer 
tells  the  monarch  that  the  prayers  of  his  fellow-be- 
lievers continually  rise  to  heaven  that  by  his  stead- 
fastness he  may  win  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man  a 
crown  far  more  precious  than  the  two  earthly  crowns 
(of  France  and  Navarre)  which  were  already  divinely 
conferred  upon  him,  although  as  yet  he  had  not 
come  into  complete  possession  of  them.  He  there- 
fore begs  him  to  see  to  it  that,  in  the  coming  con- 
ference for  instruction,  the  truth  shall  be  provided 
with  good  and  sufficient  advocates  as  against  the 
teachers  of  falsehood,  and  that  only  such  arms  shall 

^Leben  des  Theodor  de  Beza  (Heidelberg,  1809),  272. 
21 


32:^  Theodore  Beza  [151^ 

be  allowed  as  ought  to  be  employed  in  this  spiritual 
combat.  Let  not  the  king  permit  himself  to  be 
dazzled  by  the  glitter  of  alleged  antiquity  and  of 
Fathers  and  Councils  of  the  Church,  but  insist  on  an 
appeal  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  alone,  all  additions 
thereto  of  whatever  kind  having  first  been  removed. 
Then  let  the  world  know  that  he  enters  into  this 
conference,  not  because  he  is  in  doubt  or  irresolute 
respecting  a  religion  in  which  he  has  been  nurtured 
from  his  infancy,  but  because  he  would  have  all 
men  know  that  he  is  a  lover  of  truth,  and  neither  a 
heretic  nor  a  relapsed  person,  as  there  are  some  that 
dare  to  affirm.  Let  Henry  make  it  understood  that 
he  cannot  and  will  not  suffer  violence  to  be  done  to 
his  own  conscience,  as  he  will  never  use  violence 
toward  the  conscience  of  others.  Let  him  therefore 
humble  himself  and  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart 
pray  for  a  truly  contrite  spirit,  to  the  end  that 
having  obtained  pardon  for  everything  wherein  he 
has  offended,  being  a  man  as  he  is,  God  may  not 
take  away  from  him  His  Holy  Spirit,  without  whom 
it  were  far  better  to  have  been  only  a  simple  private 
person  rather  than  a  king  or  prince,  yea,  never  to 
have  been  born  at  all  rather  than  live  and  draw 
upon  himself  a  condemnation  so  much  more  severe 
as  he  has  received  more  favours  from  the  Creator. 
As  to  the  difficulties  of  his  position,  let  Henry  ask 
himself  whether  he  has  not  by  the  grace  of  God 
encountered  and  overcome  greater  perils  from  his 
childhood  up.  Has  he  never  been  accompanied  by 
fewer  friends  ?  Has  he  never  been  more  destitute 
of  human  help  ? 


1593]  Apostasy  of  Henry  IV  323 

Here  Beza  could  scarcely  have  been  more  frank 
and  insistent. 

"  Have  not  your  most  faithful  servants  been  massacred, 
as  it  were,  in  your  very  arms  ?     And  how  many  times 
has  your  life  been  at  the  mercy  of  your  enemies,  in  thou- 
sands  and  thousands  of  ways  ?     Thereupon,  what  has 
become  of  the  enemies  of  God  and  your  enemies,  against 
whom  He  has  stretched  forth  His  powerful   arm,  yea, 
often  when  you  could  not  have  imagined  it  ?     Have  not 
those  enemies  that  remain  still  to  do  with  the  same  Judge 
and  for  the  same  cause  ?     Has  that  great  God  changed 
in  His  power  against  His  hardened  enemies,  or  in  His 
will  to  maintain  and  raise  up  His  own  servants,  when  and 
in  such  manner  as  it  shall  please  Him  ?     The  issue  can 
never  be  other  than  very  good  and  very  happy  for  those 
that  follow  Him  without  straying  from  the  path  by  which 
He  leads  them.     .     .     .     Moreover,  Sire,  we  are  assured 
that,  over  and  above  what  we  have  said,  and  all  that 
could  be  said  on  this  point,  you  have  not  forgotten  and 
never  will  forget  that  precious  sentiment  of  which,  as  we 
have  learned,  you   were  so  expressly  reminded  by  the 
late  queen,  your  mother  of  immortal  and  most  blessed 
memory,  in   her  last  will   and   testament,  namely,  that 
'  God  knows  them  that  honour  Him  and  casts  dishonour 
on  them  that  dishonour  Him.'     Nor  also,  as  we  believe, 
have  you  forgotten  that  excellent  speech  which  God  put 
into   your   heart   and  into  your  mouth  to   utter  in  the 
midst  of  alarms,  as  it  has  been  reported  to  us  :  *  If  it  be 
my  God's  will  that  I  reign,  I  shall  reign,  despite  any  at- 
tempt to  prevent  me  ;  and  if  it  be  not  His  will,  neither 
is  it  mine.'     They  were   words  worthy  of  a  king  Most 
Christian  both  in  name  and   in  fact.     Such  God  grant 
that  you  may  always  be,  for  His  glorv  and  for  the  estab- 


324  Theodore  Beza  [1593 

lishment  of  your  France,  and  may  your  Majesty  remem- 
ber the  firmness  of  the  poor  city  of  Geneva,  for  religion's 
sake  reduced  to  great  straits, — Geneva  that  is  little  in 
power,  but  very  sincere  in  its  attachment  to  your  service." 

The  letter  closed  with  a  reference  to  the  instruct- 
ive example  of  King  David,  rescued  from  a  thou- 
sand deaths,  miraculously  carried  to  the  throne,  and, 
after  exposure  for  years  to  civil  war,  finally  placed  in 
full  possession  of  his  regal  rights ;  and  with  a  prayer 
that  Henry  might  surpass  even  David,  by  avoiding 
David's  faults  and  imitating  David's  virtues/ 

The  author  of  so  sturdy  a  plea  for  manly  perse- 
verance amid  temptations  to  weakness  would  have 
been  slow  to  approve  the  pusillanimous  surrender  of 
principle  made  by  Henry  IV.,  on  July  25,  1593,  at 
the  abbey  of  Saint  Denis.  He  would  have  been  the 
last  man  on  earth  to  applaud  the  Abjuration  as  a 
necessary  step  to  heal  the  wounds  of  his  unfortunate 
kingdom,  or,  to  use  a  more  modern  phrase,  as  a 
disinterested  sacrifice  of  personal  preferences  upon 
the  altar  of  patriotism. 

^  Beza  to  Henry  IV.,  June,  1593,  in  Bulletin,  i.,  41-46.  The 
Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre,  ii.,  334. 


CHAPTER   XIX 
beza's  iater  years  in  geneva 

THE  last  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  of  Beza's 
life  at  Geneva  were  years  of  diminishing  activ- 
ity, but  not  of  idleness.  Burdens  too  heavy  for  his 
impaired  health  were  gradually  thrown  off,  but  there 
remained  a  wide  range  of  labours  useful  to  Church 
and  Republic. 

His  property  did  not,  we  may  believe,  place  him 
among  the  wealthy  citizens  of  Geneva.  It  suf- 
ficed for  his  wants  and  not  only  made  him  inde- 
pendent of  others,  but  permitted  him  to  gratify  his 
well-known  hospitality  and  liberality.  Thus  it  was 
that,  on  occasion,  when  the  University  lost  its  pro- 
fessors whom  it  had  no  means  of  paying,  Beza  was 
glad  to  carry  on  the  work  of  instruction  at  his  own 
charges,  until  the  advent  of  better  times. 

With  the  same  gratitude  to  Heaven  with  which  in 
his  autobiography  he  chronicles  the  fact  that  he  was 
born  of  a  noble  Burgundian  family,  he  alludes  in  his 
later  years  to  the  comparative  ease  of  his  pecuniary 
circumstances.  He  was  no  indigent  refugee.  In 
dedicating  the  first  edition  of  his  collected  theologi- 
cal works  to  Sir  Thomas  Mildmay  (in  February, 
1570),  he  stated  it  as  his  chief  reason  for  so  doing, 

325 


J 


26  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 


that  the  English  knight  had  in  times  of  great  calam- 
ity generously  relieved  the  necessities  of  the  poor 
exiles  who  had  forsaken  their  native  land  for  the 
Gospel's  sake. 

"  Since  then,"  he  adds,  "  I  also  am  one  of  their  num- 
ber— by  no  means  indeed  needy,  by  God's  kindness, 
but  nevertheless  so  united  with  them  by  the  same  spirit 
in  Christ,  that  whatever  things  befall  them  I  regard  as 
my  own, — I  have  believed  that  I  could  not  escape  the 
vice  of  ingratitude,  unless  I  gave  expression  to  the  re- 
spect in  which  I  hold  you,  by  proffering  these  volumes 
as  a  pledge.  The  time  is  most  opportune  ;  since  I  had 
them  in  my  hands  at  the  very  moment  when  the  an- 
nouncement reached  me  of  your  benevolence  toward 
our  poor  students." 

Evidently  the  Rector  of  the  University  of  Geneva 
was  not  dependent  upon  the  scanty  emolument, 
irregularly  paid,  of  his  ofifice,  but  had  retained  or 
recovered  no  insignificant  part  of  the  family  inherit- 
ance.^ If  the  sight  of  the  honourable  position  at- 
tained by  Beza,  the  professor  at  Lausanne,  had 
affected  deeply  his  father  and  brothers,  who  had 
learned  of  his  departure  from  France  with  great  dis- 
pleasure, the  admiration  of  the  survivors  knew  no 
bounds  when,  at  the   court   of   France,   about  the 

'  M.  Charles  Borgeaud  refers  {Bulletin,  xlviii.  [1899],  64)  to  the 
fact  that  a  number  of  Beza's  scholars  lived  under  his  roof  and  ate  at 
his  table,  and  adds  ;  "  This  great  man,  who  was  the  counsellor  of  so 
many  kings  and  princes,  the  incontestable  head  of  a  powerful  party, 
and  the  spiritual  director  of  a  republic,  was  throughout  his  whole 
life  obliged,  in  view  of  the  slenderness  of  his  resources,  to  have 
boarders  in  his  home.  To  one  of  these  last,  George  Sigismond  of 
^astriseU,  he  sold  his  library  (for  six  hundred  ^old  crowns),"     Th^ 


1564]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  327 

time  of  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy,  their  kinsman  gained 
such  distinction  as  he  could  not  possibly  have  ac- 
quired through  the  favour  and  patronage  of  his 
Roman  Catholic  connections. 

One  circumstance,  a  result  of  Beza's  voluntary 
withdrawal  from  France  in  1548,  has  not  been  noticed. 
A  year  or  more  had  elapsed  since  he  reached  Geneva, 
when  the  "  procureur  general,"  or  king's  attorney, 
attached  to  the  Parliament  of  Paris  took  cognisance 
of  the  fact.  As  an  absentee  Beza  was  summoned 
to  appear  before  the  court  within  the  space  of  three 
days,  and,  having  failed  to  present  himself,  was,  on 
the  last  day  of  May,  1550,  condemned  to  be  ex- 
ecuted in  effigy,  all  his  property  being  declared 
forfeited  to  the  king.  The  sentence  was  never  pub- 
lished or  executed.  Fourteen  years  later,  both 
Henry  II.  and  Francis  II.  being  now  dead,  the 
Reformer  obtained  from  Charles  IX.  (August  i, 
1564)  a  formal  annulment  under  the  great  seal  of 
France  and  accompanied  by  honourable  expressions. 
It  was  the  king's  will,  moreover,  that  Beza  should 
enjoy,  in  company  with  all  his  other  subjects,  the 
full  benefits  of  the  edict  of  pacification.'     The  docu- 

truth  seems  to  be  that  while  Beza's  means  were  ample  for  his  per- 
sonal wants,  he  was  so  liberal  in  his  gifts  to  every  good  work,  in- 
cluding the  University,  and  to  every  deserving  applicant  for  his 
assistance,  that  he  could  put  to  good  account  every  little  addition  to 
his  income.  He  was  childless,  and  his  house  could  accommodate 
without  inconvenience  additional  guests.  He  and  his  wife  were  of  a 
social  disposition,  and  were  not  averse  to  having  the  companionship 
of  young  people,  if  of  congenial  tastes. 

'  Baum,  i.,  67,   inserts  a  part  of  the  document,  which  is  in  the 
great  collection  of  the  late  Col.  Henri  Tronchin,  at  Geneva, 


2)2^  Theodore  Beza  [15x9- 

ment  was  a  complete  refutation  of  the  malignant 
accusations  of  Beza's  enemies. 

This  was  three  years  after  the  Colloquy  of  Poissy. 
To  the  period  of  the  colloquy  itself  belongs  a  touch- 
ing incident  of  family  history.  The  Reformer  was 
unexpectedly  visited  at  court,  probably  at  Saint 
Germain,  by  his  brother  Nicholas,  toward  the  end 
of  September,  or  at  the  beginning  of  October,  1561. 
The  brother  brought  the  intelligence  that  the  aged 
father — he  was  seventy-six  years  old — was  fast  de- 
clining in  health,  and  was  anxious  to  see  his  son 
Theodore  at  Vezelay  before  he  died.^  The  latter 
dutifully  promised  to  go  there  on  his  return  to 
Geneva.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  the  return  was  long 
deferred.  The  colloquy  was  followed  by  private 
conferences,  the  conferences  by  the  Assembly  of 
Notables,  and  there  was  no  one  whom  the  queen- 
mother  and  the  royal  council  regarded  it  more  im- 
portant for  the  peace  of  France  to  detain  at  court 
than  Beza.  With  the  passage  of  time,  Pierre  de 
B^ze  became  more  urgent.  In  a  letter  written  to 
his  son  in  French,  which  Beza  translated  and  inserted 
in  his  own  letter  of  November  25,  1561,  to  Calvin, 
he  said : 

**  That  you  have  not  yet  come,  my  son,  I  forgive,  be- 
cause you  have  wisely  placed  public  affairs  before  pri- 
vate. But  see  to  it  that  you  remember  also  what  you 
owe  a  parent,  and  that  you  do  this  as  soon  as  possible, 
when  you  shall  be  permitted.  I  desire  that  your  brother 
also,  who  is  there,  should  come  with  his  wife,  and  that  you 


1594]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  329 

should  summon  your  wife  also  when  you  come.  For  I 
have  resolved  in  the  presence  of  you  all,  my  children,  to 
make  my  will,  and,  if  so  it  please  God,  to  die.  Conse- 
quently you  will  do  me  a  grateful  service  if  you  should 
be  able  to  bring  also  from  her  monastery  your  sister,  who 
is  now  my  only  daughter."  * 

It  was  an  unfortunate  conclusion  to  the  matter 
that  Beza  and  his  father  after  all  did  not  meet  again. 
The  civil  war  broke  out.  It  became  impossible  for 
Beza  to  traverse  Burgundian  territory,  and  the  long- 
looked-for  opportunity  never  came  to  reach  Vezelay 
before  his  father's  death. 

I  have  said  that  Beza's  burdens  were  somewhat 
lessened  as  the  years  passed  on.  Let  it  not  be  sup- 
posed, however,  that  they  were,  until  the  very  last, 
what  most  men  would  call  light.  In  a  letter  to 
Melanchthon's  son-in-law,  Gaspard  Peucer,  written 
in  1594,  we  find  a  few  lines  telling  us  what  he  could 
and  did  accomplish  at  seventy-five  years  of  age. 

"  With  the  exception  of  a  trembling  of  the  hand  that 
almost  prevents  my  tracing  a  line,  I  am  well  enough, 
thank  God  !  to  preach  every  Sunday  and  to  deliver  every 
fortnight  my  three  theological  lectures.  The  auditorium 
is  pretty  well  filled  for  these  trying  times.  I  am  over- 
whelmed with  occupations  of  different  sorts  and  infinite 
in  number — not  those  which  depend  on  my  office  and 
to  which  I  am  accustomed  by  virtue  of  it,  but  occupa- 
tions that  come  every  instant  from  without,  difficulties 
that  must  absolutely  be  met  and  solved,  of  which  you 
can  easily  imagine  the  multitude  and  importance  in  this 
whirlwind  of  war  that  drags  us  along.     Thus  it  is  that  iq 

I  Text  in  Baum,  ii.,  documents,  136. 


33^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

the  midst  of  agitations,  I  struggle  and  am  nearing  the  end 
of  my  course,  with  my  spirit  as  much  as  possible  on 
high."  ^ 

Meanwhile  Beza  found  time  to  give  a  careful  and 
final  revision  to  the  French  version  of  the  Bible 
in  common  use  among  Protestants.  This  was  essen- 
tially the  translation  made  by  Robert  Olivetanus, 
a  cousin  of  John  Calvin,  regarding  which  the  most 
interesting  circumstance  was  that  the  Waldenses  of 
Piedmont,  out  of  their  deep  poverty,  had  collected 
the  sum,  enormous  for  them,  of  fifteen  hundred  gold 
crowns,  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  printing,  in  1535, 
by  Paul  de  Wingle,  in  the  village  of  Serrieres,  near 
Neufchatel.'"  Calvin  and  others  had  laboured  to 
perfect  it.  Now  Beza  and  his  colleagues — especially 
Corneille  Bertram,  who  held  the  chair  of  Hebrew — 
gave  it  a  further  revision.  Thus  was  developed  the 
famous  "  Bible  of  the  Pastors  and  Professors  of 
Geneva,"  which,  from  1588  on  to  almost  our  own 
times,  has  passed  through  a  multitude  of  editions 
and  exercised  a  vast  influence  on  successive  genera- 
tions of  readers.  The  remarkable  preface  was  written 
by  Beza  at  the  request  of  the  Venerable  Company 
of  Pastors.^  The  Library  of  Geneva  still  boasts 
among  its  many  objects  of  interest  a  richly  bound 
copy  of  this  Bible,  bearing  the  arms  of  France  and 

'  I  find  this  quotation  in  Charles  Borgeaud's  valuable  monograph 
on  "  Theodore  Beza  and  the  Academy  of  Geneva"  {Bulletin,  xlviii. 
[1899],  64),  to  which  I  am  indebted  for  a  number  of  interesting 
particulars. 

-  For  a  fuller  account,  see  Rise  of  the  Hti^uenQts,  i.,  233  ;  and  for 
a  copy  of  the  title-page,  Bulletin,  i.,  82, 

^Bulletin,  xlviii.,  65-67. 


i58i]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  331 

Navarre,  which  the  Council  of  the  city  had  had  pre- 
pared for  presentation  to  Henry  IV.  Its  companion 
volume,  similarly  prepared  for  his  sister,  Catharine 
of  Bourbon,  was  graciously  accepted  by  her.  But 
Henry,  when  his  copy  reached  the  court,  was  about 
to  abjure,  and  the  presentation,  which  would  at  the 
time  have  led  to  embarrassing  complications,  was 
deferred  until  some  favourable  juncture  might  arise, 
and  the  Bible  ultimately  returned  to  Geneva.' 

Of  all  the  lectures  in  the  University,  those  of  Beza 
were  naturally  the  best  attended.  The  students  of 
all  the  faculties  made  it  a  point  to  be  present  at 
them,  no  matter  what  part  of  the  Bible  he  happened 
to  be  cohimenting  upon.  It  was  the  Epistle  of  Paul 
to  the  Romans  when  young  Louis  Iselin,  in  1581, 
wrote  a  letter  to  his  uncle  which  has  come  down  to 
us.  Beza's  lecture  hour  alone  was  announced  by 
the  ringing  of  the  bell  of  the  cathedral  of  Saint 
Pierre,  as  if  calling  to  a  religious  function,  and  pre- 
cisely as  it  used  to  ring  for  the  lectures  of  John 
Calvin  before  the  University  was  instituted.'^ 

Nor  was  this  strange.  Beza  was  the  first  citizen 
of  Geneva,  the  man  who  was  always  at  his  post, 
however  it  might  be  with  others,  the  one  man  whom 
everybody  went  to  see  on  arriving,  and  again  before 
his  departure.  No  student  was  well  satisfied  with 
himself  unless  he  took  away  a  letter  of  commenda- 
tion from  the  old  patriarch,  or,  at  the  very  least,  an 
album  in  which  was  inscribed  his  characteristic 
signature  with  some  verses  kindly  composed  for  the 

"^  Ibid.,  t<bi  supra.     Baedeker,  Switzerland,  204, 
^Bulletin,  xlviii.,  63,  64. 


Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

In  the  estimation  of  the  University  and 
of  the  burgesses,  and  not  less  in  that  of  the  outside 
world,  Beza  stood  for  both  School  and  State.  Every 
appeal  to  foreign  princes  or  foreign  commonwealths 
for  one  or  the  other  either  originated  from  him  or 
was  urged  under  his  patronage.  It  was  the  author- 
ity of  his  great  name,  the  memory  of  his  great  serv- 
ices in  the  past  in  behalf  of  Protestantism,  that 
secured  the  great  results  which  flowed  from  the  ap- 
peals, the  abundant  funds  which  saved  both  the 
school  and  the  commonwealth  from  a  destruction 
which  otherwise  might  have  overtaken  both  almost 
at  any  moment  in  a  long  succession  of  years.  So 
long  as  he  lived,  such  was  his  high  standing,  such 
were  his  relations  with  the  Protestant  sovereigns  of 
Europe,  that  they  made  of  him,  as  it  were,  a  per- 
manent minister  of  foreign  affairs.'' 

In  the  year  1588  Beza's  wife  died  of  the  plague 
after  a  married  life  of  forty-four  years.  She  was  the 
Claude  or  Claudine  Desnoz  whom  he  had  espoused 
secretly,  but  before  witnesses,  three  or  four  years 
before  leaving  France,  afterwards  confirming  and 
ratifying  his  engagements  in  the  presence  of  the 
church,  immediately  upon  his  arrival  at  Geneva. 
The  union,  although  childless,  had  otherwise  proved 
a  source  of  unmingled  happiness.  The  wife,  whom 
he  had  married  for  love  and  in  an  irregular  manner, 
was  devoted,  affectionate,  and  helpful.  Her  hus- 
band celebrated  her  virtues  and  his  own  grief  in  a 


1  An  example  of  such  an  inscription  by  Beza  in  a  student's  album 
is  reproduced  in  facsimile  in  Bulletin,  xxxvi.,  82, 
'  ^orgeaud,  ubi  supra,  75  et passim^ 


15SS]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  333 

long  consolatory  poem  addressed  to  the  eminent 
Jacques  Lect,  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Geneva, 
who,  not  long  after  the  death  of  Beza's  wife,  had 
been    called    to    pass    through   a  similar  affliction/ 

Not  many  months,  apparently,  after  Claudine's  sud- 
den death,  Beza  married  a  second  wife,  Genevieve 
del  Piano,  the  widow  of  a  Genoese  refugee.  Being 
now  in  his  seventieth  year,  and  somewhat  of  a 
victim  to  rheumatism,  he  had  been  urged  to  this 
step  by  his  friends,  who  wished  to  provide  him  with 
a  companion  in  his  loneliness.  As  the  expressions 
of  his  joy  over  his  new  union  were  moderate,  so  the 
results  were  satisfactory  to  the  full  measure  of  his 
wishes  and  prayers. 

"  Here  again,  esteemed  friend  and  very  dear  brother," 
he  wrote  to  Pastor  Grynccus,  of  Basel,  August  20,  1588, 
"  here  again,  by  the  advice  of  friends,  and  led  by  the 
very  many  inevitable  ills  of  old  age  to  seek  for  the  help 
of  another,  I  have  returned  to  matrimony.  I  have  taken 
to  wife  a  widow  approaching  her  fiftieth  year,  so  adorned, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  all  good  people,  with  piety 
and  every  matronal  virtue,  that  a  wife  more  suitable  and 
more  to  my  mind  cou-ld  not  fall  to  my  lot.  Regarding 
this  blessing  of  God  toward  me,  I  wish  you  to  render 
thanks  to  Him  with  me,  and  to  join  your  prayers  to  mine 
that  the  sequel  may  correspond  to  this  commencement."  ^ 

Beza  had  no  children  by  either  of  his  wives. 
The  even  tenor  of  the  aged  Reformer's  later  years 
was  interrupted  by  a  curious  attempt  at  conversion. 

^  Schlosser  has  inserted  it  in  his  Leben  des  Theoeor  de  Beza,  290. 
2  Inedited  letter  of  August  20,  1588.     Copy  in  Baum  Collection, 
MSS.,  French  Prot.  Society. 


334  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

A  young  ecclesiastic  of  noble  family,  born  at  Sales, 
a  castle  belonging  to  his  family  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Annecy,  was  at  this  time  engaged  in  a  bril- 
liant work  of  proselytism  which  was  to  render  the 
name  of  Francis  of  Sales  famous  throughout  Christ- 
endom. It  has  been  the  boast  of  his  friends  and 
admirers,  that  by  his  instrumentality  no  fewer  than 
seventy  thousand  Protestants,  constituting  almost 
the  entire  population  of  the  district  of  Chablais, 
east  and  south  of  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  were  brought 
into  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  His 
methods  have  been  represented  as  purely  spiritual, 
inspired  by  love  and  carried  out  in  gentleness.  In 
reality  they  were  an  appeal  to  worldly  considera- 
tions, backed  by  a  display  of  military  force  and 
characterised  by  cruelties  such  as  have  rarely  been 
exceeded  in  the  history  of  religious  intolerance. 
The  conversion  of  Chablais  was  a  foretaste  of  the 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes;  for  the  Dragon- 
nades  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  were  only  the  counter- 
part, on  a  smaller  scale,  of  the  "  booted  missions  " 
organised  under  Louvois  and  executed  by  Foucault 
and  the  other  servile  intendants  of  Louis  XIV. 
The  future  Saint  Francis  of  Sales  was  the  prototype 
of  the  prelates  of  that  monarch's  court. ^ 

It  was  while  engaged  in  the  reduction  of  the  Pro- 
testants of  Chablais  that  a  suggestion  was  made  to 
Francis  of  Sales  that  he  should  try  his  skill  in  bring- 
ing over  to  Roman  Catholicism  Theodore  Beza, 
the  hero  of  many  an  intellectual  contest  and  the 
famous    Protestant   champion.      Beza  was  born  in 

^  See  77ie  Iltigucnots  and  Henry  of  Navarre^  ii.,  472,  473. 


FRANCIS  OF  SALES. 


1597]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  335 

1 5 19,  early  in  the  century.  Sales  was  born  in  1567, 
when  two  thirds  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  elapsed 
In  1 597,  the  former  was  consequently  almost  an  octo- 
genarian, the  latter  was  barely  thirty  years  old. 
What  a  triumph  would  it  be  if  the  experienced 
Goliath  of  the  heretics  were  to  be  overthrown  by  a 
well-directed  pebble  from  the  sling  of  the  youthful 
David ! 

Francis  of  Sales  was  moved  to  make  the  attempt 
by  a  papal  brief  of  Avhich  his  nephew  has  given  us  a 
translation : 

"  Dear  and  well-beloved  son  :  We  have  been  in- 
formed of  the  piety  that  is  in  you  and  the  zeal  you  have 
for  the  honour  of  God,  a  thing  that  has  been  agreeable 
to  us.  The  messenger  will  intimate  to  you  in  our  name 
certain  matters  which  concern  the  glory  of  God  and 
which  we  have  much  at  heart.  You  will  employ  herein 
all  the  diligence  which  we  promise  ourselves  from  your 
prudence  and  affection  to  the  Holy  See.  At  Rome, 
October  i,  1596." 

All  accounts  agree  that  Francis  of  Sales  made 
several  visits  to  Beza  at  his  home  in  the  city  of 
Geneva,  and  that  he  was  met  with  kindness.  Beza 
was,  says  Auguste  de  Sales,  the  future  saint's 
nephew  and  biographer,  "a  handsome  old  man  of 
about  seventy  years,  who  affected  an  appearance  of 
gravity'";  and  his  visitor,  "  on  entering  his  abode, 
did  not  forget  the  dictates  of  civility  in  saluting 
him,  as  also  Beza  received  him  very  courteously." 
According  to  the  same  authority,  Francis  introduced 
the  conversation  with  a  jest,  of  no  great  merit  cer- 


^Z^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

tainly,  but  sufficient  to  draw  a  hearty  laugh  from  his 
indulgent  host.  It  consisted  in  a  play  of  words, 
made  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  upon  an  in- 
scription which  had  caught  the  guest's  eye  below  a 
portrait  of  Beza's  great  predecessor.  By  the  slight 
change  of  two  or  three  words  in  the  Latin  verses, 
Francis  of  Sales,  without  marring  the  metre,  had 
made  Geneva  from  *  *  happily  "to  *  *  insanely  ' '  listen- 
ing to  the  words  of  her  great  teacher  Calvin,  and 
that  teacher's  writings  "  condemned,"  in  place  of 
**  celebrated,"  by  the  pious  throughout  the  world. 

From  trivialities  the  talk  turned  to  things  more 
serious,  and  Francis  of  Sales  plied  Beza  with  the 
question  so  commonly  raised  in  contemporaneous 
controversy  with  Protestants,  whether  a  man  could 
not  be  saved  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  To 
this  Beza  promptly  answered  that  a  man  might  thus 
be  saved,  not,  however,  by  means  of  that  multitude 
of  ordinances  and  ceremonies  with  which  Christ's 
teachings  had  been  overlaid.  A  discussion  ensued 
on  the  subject  of  good  works  which  would  be  im- 
material to  our  purpose,  even  could  we  know  with 
certainty  what  was  really  said.^ 

Francis  did  not  fail  to  report  this  interview  to 
Pope  Clement  VIII.,  in  words  reproduced  by  his 
nephew : 

"  I  began  by  entertaining  good  hopes  of  the  conver- 
sion of  the  first  of  Calvinistic  heretics.  With  this  object 
in  view,  I  entered  Geneva  several  times,  but  never  had 


^  Vie  de  Francois  de  Sales,  par  son  neveu,  Auguste  de  Sales  (1632), 
133,  in  M.  Gaberel's  article,  "  Tentation  de  Theodore  de  Beze  par 
Francois  de  Sales,"  Bulletin,  viii.,  15,  16, 


1597]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  337 

the  least  opportunity  to  speak  to  the  man  in  private  ; 
until  finally,  three  days  after  Easter,  I  found  him  alone 
and  did  my  very  best.  But  his  heart  was  not  moved. 
He  is  altogether  stony,  being  inveterate  in  his  hardness, 
as  the  result  of  a  long  series  of  years  miserably  spent. 
Perhaps  I  shall  bring  him  back  to  the  fold  ;  but  what  is 
to  be  done  ?  " 

To  which  the  pontiff  replied  in  his  letter  of  May  29, 
1597: 

"  Your  zeal  is  worthy  of  a  servant  of  God.  We  ap- 
prove what  you  have  done  until  now,  in  the  matter  of 
bringing  back  the  lost  sheep.  We  passionately  seek  this 
divine  work.  Prosecute  therefore,  with  the  help  of  the 
grace  of  God,  what  you  have  begun."  * 

Thus  encouraged,  Francis  repeated  his  visit  and 
entered  upon  new  discussions,  involving  the  question 
of  good  works  and  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See. 
In  the  course  of  the  conversation,  as  he  reported, 
Theodore  Beza  made  the  remark:  "  As  for  myself, 
if  I  am  not  in  the  right  way  I  pray  to  God  every 
day  that  He  will  lead  me  into  it."  The  words,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  gave  his  visitor  fresh  hope, 
possibly  because  they  were  accompanied  by  a  sigh. 
In  a  third  interview  he  returned  to  the  charge.  His 
panegyrists  regard  it  as  a  signal  proof  of  his  courage 
that  he  thrice  exposed  himself  to  the  peril  of  enter- 
ing Geneva  and  encountering  enemies  enraged  at 
him  by  his  previous  visits;  though  certain  it  is  that 
never  was  he  safer  in  his  life  than  he  was  within  its 
walls.     It  was  on  this  occasion    that,   approaching 

'  Il>id.,  136,  in  Bulletin,  viii,,  17. 


33^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

Beza,   as  his  nephew   tells   us,    De   Sales  made  an 
extraordinary  speech : 

"  Sir,  you  are  doubtless  agitated  by  many  thoughts, 
and  since  you  recognise  the  truth  of  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion, I  do  not  doubt  that  you  have  the  wish  to  return 
to  her.  She  calls  you  to  enter  her  pale.  But  it  may  be 
that  you  fear  lest,  should  you  return  to  her,  the  comforts 
of  life  may  fail  you.  Ah  !  sir,  if  that  be  all,  according 
to  the  assurance  I  have  received  from  His  Holiness,  I 
bring  you  the  promise  of  a  pension  of  four  thousand 
crowns  of  gold  every  year.  In  addition,  all  your  effects 
will  be  paid  for  at  double  the  price  at  which  you  value 
them."  ' 

Up  to  this  point  we  may  believe  Francis  of  Sales's 
nephew.  Another  biographer,  Marsollier,  writing 
in  the  present  century,  in  a  notice  prefixed  to  the 
complete  works  of  Saint  Francis  of  Sales,  asserts 
that,  convinced  of  Beza's  friendly  dispositions  to- 
ward him  and  resolved  to  take  advantage  of  them, 
Francis  informed  the  Reformer  that  he  had  brought 
with  him  a  pontifical  brief,  recently  received,  in  which 
Beza  was  offered  an  honourable  refuge  wherever  he 
might  choose  to  go,  a  pension  of  four  thousand  gold 
crowns,  the  payment  for  his  furniture  and  books  at 
his  own  valuation,  in  fine  all  the  security  he  might 
judge  proper  to  exact. ^ 

Up  to  this  point,  I  repeat,  we  can  believe  nar- 
ratives possibly  the  one  a  reproduction  of  the 
other,  but  both  from  Roman  Catholic  sources.     It 

'  Bulletin,  viii.,  ig. 

'Marsollier,  quoted  in  Bulletin,  vii.,  227.  :* 


t597]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  339 

is  otherwise,  however,  when  Auguste  de  Sales 
makes  **  poor  Beza  remain  speechless  with  his  eyes 
fixed  upon  the  ground,  and  then  confess  that  the 
Roman  Church  was  the  mother  Church,  but  add 
that  he  did  not  despair  of  being  saved  in  the  religion 
wherein  he  was."  Whereupon  the  future  saint 
gave  up  the  case  as  lost  and  returned  to  Thonon. 
Fortunately  there  are  other  accounts  that  have  more 
verisimilitude  and  do  less  violence  to  our  knowledge 
of  Beza's  manly  dignity,  to  which  his  nearly  four- 
score years  had  lent  a  still  greater  title  to  respect. 

"  When,"  adds  a  Genevese  manuscript,  "  Beza  heard 
these  odious  words,  a  severe  majesty  replaced  on  his 
countenance  the  kindly  cordiality  with  which  he  had 
been  speaking  to  the  young  priest.  He  pointed  to  his 
library  shelves  empty  of  books  ;  for  these  had  been  sold 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  support  of  a  number  of 
French  refugees.  Then  conducting  his  visitor  to  the 
door,  he  took  leave  of  him  with  the  words  :  '  Vade  retro^ 
Satanas  !  ' — '  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan  ! '  " 

And  an  oral  tradition  makes  Beza  conclude  his  leave- 
taking  with  the  trenchant  observation:  **  Go,  sir,  I 
am  too  old  and  deaf  to  be  able  to  give  ear  to  such 
words!  "  '  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  par- 
ticular form  of  De  Sales's  dismissal,  this  much  is 
certain,  that  he  returned  whence  he  came  without 
having  effected  his  purpose.  Unfortunately  he  or 
his  friends  had  boasted  of  his  victory  before  it  was 
won.  Therefore  the  news  was  spread  throughout 
Europe  that  De  Sales  was  about  to  lead  his  aged 

'  Gaberel's  article  in  Bulletin,  viii.,  19. 


340  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

convert  in  triumph  to  be  reconciled  to  Mother  Holy- 
Church  at  the  See  of  Saint  Peter.  Crowds  waited 
at  Siena  and  elsewhere  on  the  road  to  Rome  for  the 
edifying  spectacle,  but  waited  in  vain.  Beza  never 
came.  Others  reported  the  story  differently.  The 
arch-heretic,  Calvin's  successor,  had  died,  forsooth, 
but,  before  his  death,  he  had  recanted  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Council  of  Geneva,  had  begged  them  to 
be  reconciled  to  the  Romish  Church  and  to  send  for 
the  Jesuits,  and  had  himself  received  absolution  by 
special  order  from  the  Pope,  at  the  hands  of  the 
(titular)  Bishop  of  Geneva,  Francis  of  Sales.  Where- 
fore, after  Beza's  death,  the  city  sent  to  Rome  an 
embassage  of  submission.  It  is  Sir  Edwin  Sandys 
that  gives  us,  in  his  Etiropce  Speculum,  this  amusing 
account  of  the  death-bed  conversion  of  the  Re- 
former, who  did  not  die  for  a  good  period  of  eight 
years  yet,  and  of  the  "  ambassadors  of  Geneva,  yet 
invisible."  *  The  Jesuits  took  part  in  the  matter  by 
printing  a  document  which  Lestoile,  in  his  Journal, 
says  began  with  the  words:  "  Geneva,  mother  and 
refuse  of  heresies,  now  at  length  that  Beza  is  dead, 
embraces  the  Catholic  faith."  As  for  Beza  himself, 
thus  quickly  blotted  out  of  existence  by  popular 
rumour  and  inimical  pamphleteers,  it  seemed  good 
to  him  to  vindicate  both  his  own  existence  and  his 
honour,  by  publishing  a  letter  that  very  year  and 
over  his  own  name,  full  of  the  old  sprightliness  and 
setting  forth  with  relentless  sarcasm  the  shameless 
inventions   of   the   members   of  the  "  company  of 

^  Etiropce  Speculum,  iii.     The  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre, 
ii.,  470,  471. 


1595]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  341 

monks  that  lyingly  assume  the  name  of  Jesus." 
This  and  a  pungent  epigram  called  out  by  the  same 
circumstances  are  among  the  very  last  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  Beza's  pen  that  have  come  down  to  us.' 

But  up  to  the  end  of  his  life  the  passion  for  let- 
ters continued,  and  now  that  the  time  for  sustained 
labours  had  clearly  passed,  it  was  chiefly  in  poetry 
that  he  continued  to  divert  himself,  the  epigram 
which  had  been  the  pastime  of  his  youth  thus  be- 
coming the  solace  of  his  old  age.  The  homeliest 
circumstance  of  every-day  life  afforded  subject 
enough  for  verses  —  Latin  verses,  of  course — in 
which  the  trivial  occurrence  was  turned  to  spiritual 
account  and  made  to  bear  a  higher  interpretation. 
In  the  freedom  of  familiar  correspondence  with  his 
old  friend,  Grynaeus,  the  pastor  of  Basel,  he  jots 
down,  for  example,  the  fact  that  that  very  morning 
of  his  seventy-sixth  birthday,  his  aged  servant  had 
greeted  him  on  awaking  with  news  from  the  poultry- 
yard.  A  hen  had  been  bought  a  month  before  and 
had  been  lost  sight  of  at  once;  she  just  now  ap- 
pears, but  not  alone ;  fifteen  little  chickens,  her  pro- 
geny, follow  and  crowd  about  her. 

^'  You  see,"  he  writes  to  Grynaeus,  "  by  this  homely 
incident  how  unconventionally  I  treat  you.  I  gave 
thanks  for  this  increase  of  wealth  to  the  Author  of  all 
good,  and  I  saw  in  it — shall  I  tell  you  ?: — without  regard- 
ing myself  in  this  as  being  guilty  of  superstition — the 
presage  of  some  special  favour.  I  even  composed  on 
this  subject  an  epigram,  and  I  send  it  to  you,  in  order 

1  Heppe,  315. 


342  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

not  to  leave  you  a  stranger  to  these  light  relaxations  of 
my  mind." 

The  eight  verses  enclosed  were  of  faultless  Latinity, 
but  need  not  be  transcribed  here.  The  thought  was 
simple  but  pious.  The  hen  bought  but  a  month 
ago  rewards  her  purchaser,  who  expended  for  her 
but  ten  sous,  with  a  whole  brood  of  young.  "  And 
I,  O  Christ  full  of  benignity,  what  fruits  have  I  re- 
turned to  Thee  in  the  seventy-six  years  that  I  have 
lived  until  now  ?  "  ^ 

It  was  five  years  later  (1600)  that  a  nobleman  from 
Guyenne,  happening  to  pass  through  Geneva  on  his 
way  back  from  Rome  in  company  with  the  physician 
of  the  King  of  Morocco,  as  Florimond  de  Raemond 
relates,  called  upon  Beza.  The  patriarch,  now  past 
fourscore,  received  his  visitors  with  all  his  old-time 
dignity,  courtesy,  and  affability.  He  was  clad  in  a 
long  tunic  that  came  down  almost  to  his  feet  and 
girt  with  a  leathern  belt  held  by  a  large  buckle  in 
front.  His  beard  was  long  and  grey.  His  hair 
reached  his  well-turned  shoulders.  Upon  his  head 
was  a  broad  hat  of  generous  dimensions.  Alto- 
gether the  sketch  drawn  by  Raemond 's  pen  is  a 
counterpart  of  the  famous  portrait  that  still  hangs 
in  the  Public  Library  of  Geneva. 

Beza  had  been  writing,  and  still  held  in  his  hand 
some  leaves  of  paper  on  which  his  visitors  could  see 
verses  written  and  re-written  with  many  erasures^ 
and  when  he  looked  up  and  greeted  them  at  their 


^  Ad.  Schaeffer,  Lcs  Huguenots  du  16'  Sikh',  150.     Bulletin,  iii. 
146, 


i6oo]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  343 

coming  in,  he  remarked  as  he  called  their  attention 
to  the  lines,  "  This  is  the  way  that  I  beguile  my 
time  !  "  It  is  a  pleasant  view  to  which  the  historian 
introduces  us,  of  a  man  of  magnificent  natural  en- 
dowments and  magnificent  achievements  in  Church 
and  State,  placidly  occupying  the  enforced  leisure  of 
old  age,  and  striving  to  forget  the  ailments  of  a 
suffering  body,  by  the  composition  of  unpretending 
stanzas,  for  the  amusement  of  himself  or  the  chance 
friend  that  might  drop  in.  Not  so  in  the  opinion 
of  his  suspicious  visitor.  We  hardly  know  whether 
we  should  rather  be  diverted  by  the  silliness  or  be 
disgusted  by  the  malignant  suggestions  of  the 
"  nobleman  from  Guyenne."  He  could  not  read 
the  verses  Beza  had  been  scribbling,  and  therefore 
used  to  say  that  he  was  in  doubt  whether  they  were 
of  an  amatory  character  or  not ;  but,  at  any  rate,  he 
sighed  and  said  to  himself:  ''Alas!  Does  this  holy 
man,  with  one  foot  already  in  Charon's  bark,  so 
spend  his  old  age!  Is  this  the  sort  of  meditations 
with  which  a  theologian  occupies  himself!  "  ' 

Meanwhile,  though  apparently  retired  from  active 
participation  in  affairs  whether  of  Church  or  of  State, 
Beza  did  not  fail  to  exert  himself  to  good  purpose 
where  anything  could  be  done  by  him  either  for  the 
advantage  of  the  cause  of  religion  or  for  the  good 
of  the  republic  of  Geneva.  Henry  IV.,  in  particu- 
lar, entertained  for  him  a  reverence  and  accorded  to 
him  a  consideration  which  even  the  events  of  the 
unfortunate  Abjuration,,  and  Beza's  manly  frankness 
in  rebuking  that  Abjuration,  had  been  unable  to  dis- 

'  Florimond  de  Rcemond,  ii.,  635,  636. 


344  Theodore  Beza  [1519-, 

turb.     Nominal  Roman  Catholic  that  he  was,  the 
tone  of  his  correspondence  was  unaltered. 

"  Monsieur  de  Beze,"  he  writes,  February  9,  1599,  "  I 
have  heard  with  much  satisfaction  of  your  continued 
good-will  towards -me,  and  that  you  lose  no  opportunity 
to  exercise  it  for  the  advantage  of  my  affairs.  This  in- 
creases still  more  the  favour  which  I  have  always  borne 
you,  and  while  waiting  to  display  it  in  deeds,  I  have  been 
desirous  to  assure  you  anew  by  this  message,  that  you 
could  not  seek  for  its  manifestation  for  yourself  or  for 
others  in  any  matter  in  which  you  will  not  find  me  greatly 
disposed  to  gratify  you.  Meantime  I  pray  God  to  have 
you,  Monsieur  de  Beze,  in  His  holy  guard.  This  ninth 
of  February,  at  Gandelu."  ^ 

Nor  were  these  empty  words,  as  the  event  proved. 
In  1600,  Henry,  when  starting  out  upon  his  Italian 
campaign,  passed  near  Geneva,  and  encamped,  at 
the  distance  of  two  leagues  from  that  city,  before 
the  fort  known  as  Sainte-Catherine.  This  fort, 
originally  erected  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  had  been 
a  source  of  great  annoyance  and  anxiety  to  the 
Genevese,  ever  suspicious,  and  not  without  good 
reason,  of  their  neighbour  and  enemy.  When  the 
syndic  and  deputies  of  the  city  went  out  to  con- 
gratulate the  monarch,  the  latter  inquired  very 
kindly  regarding  the  health  of  Theodore  Beza  and 
expressed  a  desire  to  see  him.  Despite  his  years, 
the  Reformer  promptly  hastened  to  pay  Henry  his 
respects,  and  greeted  him  with  a  short  address  in  the 


Bulletin^  xxxvi.,  77. 


i6oo]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  345 

name  of  the  pastors,  which  could  not  have  been 
better  received. 

"  My  father,"  Henry  repHed,  addressing  the  Protestant 
patriarch  in  the  hearing  of  all,  "  your  few  words  signify 
much,  being  worthy  of  the  reputation  for  eloquence 
which  M.  de  Beze  has  gained.  I  take  them  very  kindly 
and  with  all  the  tender  feelings  they  deserve." 

And  then  upon  the  very  spot  he  granted  to  the 
Genevese  what  Beza  and  his  fellow-citizens  had 
asked. 

"  I  want  to  do  for  you,"  he  said,  "  all  that  may  be  to 
your  convenience.  Fort  Sainte-Catherine  shall  be  torn 
down,  and  here,"  pointing  to  the  Duke  of  Sully,  who 
stood  by,  "  is  a  man  in  whom  you  may  trust  with  good 
reason,  and  to  whom  I  now  issue  my  commands."  ^ 

The  speech  was  the  more  remarkable  as  a  testimony 
of  affection  and  esteem  because  Henry  had  styled 
Beza  "father,"  a  title  which,  as  Benoist  observes,  is 
little  used  by  Protestants  in  addressing  their  pastors, 
but  upon  which  the  monks  pride  themselves  and 
which  they  have,  as  it  were,  appropriated  to  them- 
selves among  the  Roman  Catholics.*  They  were 
consequently  scarcely  less  indignant  when  the  king 
applied  it  to  Beza  than  they  were  a  year  later, 
when,  before  restoring  Fort  Sainte-Catherine  to  the 
Duke  of  Savoy,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
of  peace,  he  secretly  allowed  the  inhabitants  of 
Geneva  to  destroy  the  walls  with  their  own  hands, 

^  Bulletin,  xxxvi.,  72,  based  on  Spon. 

"^  Benoist,  Histoire  de  I' Edit  de  Nantes^  i.,  358. 


34^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

a  permission  of  which  they  availed  themselves  so 
gladly  that,  when  the  moment  arrived  for  turning 
the  fort  over  to  their  hereditary  enemy,  there  was 
not  one  stone  upon  another  where  the  walls  had 
lately  stood/ 

The  perils  to  which  Geneva  was  exposed  were  not 
dissipated  by  the  overthrow  of  Fort  Sainte-Cather- 
ine,  for  Charles  Emmanuel  was  an  implacable  foe 
whose  treacherous  attempts  upon  the  republic  ended 
only  with  his  life.  He  made  little  account  of  com- 
pacts or  of  treaties  of  peace.  Scarcely  had  two 
years  elapsed  since  Henry's  visit  when  a  new  and 
more  formidable  conspiracy  was  set  on  foot.  The 
Savoyard  frontier  at  that  time  ran  closer  to  Geneva 
than  the  French  frontier  does  at  present;  the  can- 
ton having  gained  a  considerable  accession  of  terri- 
tory and  population  in  the  nineteenth  century.  An 
army  secretly  massed  on  the  border  could  traverse 
the  intervening  space  and  reach  the  walls  by  a  few 
minutes'  march.  This  is  what  occurred  on  the 
night  of  December  21,  1602,  one  of  the  longest,  as 
it  is  apt  to  be  one  of  the  darkest,  nights  of  the  year. 
There  were  eight  thousand  soldiers  in  the  force  that 
stealthily  approached  the  fortifications,  preceded  by 
their  four  generals  and  a  picked  body  of  troops.  It 
is  said  that  as  the  ladders  were  raised  and  the  ad- 
vance-guard began  to  climb  in  the  most  profound 
silence,  the  Savoyards  were  encouraged  by  the 
whispers  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  in  attendance, 
who  said:  "  Climb  boldly;  every  round  is  a  step 
heavenward!"     The  project  had  almost  proved  a 

'  See  Hitgiienots  and  Henry  of  Navarre^  ii.,  469. 


i6o2]  Later  Years  in  Geneva  347 

complete  success,  for  no  one  on  the  inside  had  per- 
ceived them,  when  a  sentinel  on  guard  gave  the 
alarm  by  discharging  his  musket.  Two  hundred 
men  had  already  scaled  the  walls  and  stood  on  the 
ramparts.  A  few  soldiers  had  actually  entered  the 
city.  The  main  body  was  approaching  the  gate 
which  a  traitor  had  agreed  to  open  to  them.  But 
a  Vaudois,  Mercier  by  name,  thwarted  the  plot  by 
his  presence  of  mind  and  let  the  portcullis  fall.  The 
citizens,  awakened  from  their  sleep,  rushed  to  meet 
such  of  the  enemy  as  had  penetrated  into  the 
streets,  and  slew  to  the  number  of  three  hundred  of 
the  assailants.  The  survivors  were  put  to  flight, 
and  retired  to  Savoy.  Sixty-seven  that  were  taken 
prisoners  were  afterwards  ruthlessly  beheaded.  Of 
the  Genevese  there  were  but  seventeen  killed. 

The  conflict  over,  the  people  flocked  to  the  church 
of  Saint  Pierre  to  render  thanks  to  Almighty  God 
for  His  wonderful  interposition  in  their  behalf.  In 
the  religious  services  Theodore  Beza,  notwithstand- 
ing his  advanced  age  and  bodily  feebleness,  took  the 
most  prominent  part. .  At  his  bidding  the  worship- 
pers with  one  accord  chanted  the  words  of  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-fourth  psalm,  turned  into  verse 
by  the  Reformer  himself  a  half-century  before,  than 
which  no  jubilant  words  more  appropriate  to  the 
occasion  could  have  been  found  in  a  collection  that 
lends  itself  wonderfully  to  the  expression  of  every 
phase  of  human  experience. 

"  If  it  had  not  been  the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side, 
Now  may  Israel  say  ; 
If  it  had  not  been  the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side, 


34^  Theodore  Beza  [1602 

When  men  rose  up  against  us  ; 
Then  they  had  swallowed  us  up  quick, 

When  their  wrath  was  kindled  against  us. 

**  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  who  hath  not  given  us 

As  a  prey  to  their  teeth. 
Our  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowlers  ; 

The  snare  is  broken  and  we  are  escaped. 
Our  help  is  in  the  name  of  the  Lord, 

Who  made  heaven  and  earth." 

On  every  recurring  anniversary  of  *  *  The  Escalade, " 
from  that  day  to  this,  the  same  psalm  is  joyfully 
sung  in  Saint  Pierre  at  the  commemorative  services; 
and  the  visitor  sees  upon  one  of  the  bas-reliefs  of  a 
fountain  erected  in  1857,  on  the  Rue  des  Allemands, 
and  known  as  **  The  Monument  of  the  Escalade,"  a 
representation  of  Theodore  Beza  in  the  act  of  re- 
turning thanks  to  God.' 


^  Daguet,  Hist,  de  la  Confederation  Suisse,  356.      Baedeker,  Swit- 
zerland^ 201. 


CHAPTER  XX 

CLOSING   DAYS 

1605 

HONOURED  for  his  long  years  of  service, revered 
for  his  signal  piety  and  the  virtues  that  had 
characterised  his  entire  life,  held  in  special  venera- 
tion as  the  sole  survivor  of  the  group  of  Reformers 
that  glorified  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  now  by  his  very  aspect  recalling  an  age  long 
since  passed,  Theodore  Beza  spent  the  remnant  of 
his  earthly  existence  in  placid  contentment  and 
with  a  happy  anticipation  of  the  rewards  of  the 
heavenly.  As  his  infirmities  increased,  so  also 
multiplied  the  sedulous  attentions  of  his  devoted 
friends  and  of  his  colleagues  in  Church  and  Univers- 
ity. A  touching  evidence  of  affection  and  solici- 
tude was  given  in  the  resolution  adopted  by  his 
brethren  of  the  ministry,  a  few  months  before  the 
end,  to  the  effect  that  at  least  two  of  their  number 
should  visit  him  daily,  to  inquire  respecting  his 
health,  and  to  minister  such  comfort  as  they  might 
be  able.  Thus  as  the  flame  of  life  flickered  in  the 
socket  before  quite  going  out,    there  were  always 

349 


350  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

friendly  eyes  that  watched  with  mingled  hope  and 
fear.  When  for  a  brief  moment  he  seemed  to  be 
snatched  from  the  borders  of  the  grave,  there  sat 
by  his  side  those  from  whose  Hps  the  precious  as- 
surances of  the  Gospel  were  doubly  precious,  be- 
cause recalled  by  friends  with  whom  he  had  enjoyed 
sweet  communion  in  the  past.  On  Saturday,  Octo- 
ber 12,  1605,  he  listened  with  folded  hands  and  with 
evident  joy,  as  his  colleague  La  Faye  recited  the 
words  of  Saint  Paul,  "  Therefore,  being  justified  by 
faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,"  and  discoursed  respecting  God's  grace 
to  the  called  according  to  His  purpose,  whom  He  has 
justified,  and  glorified.  On  the  morrow,  the  last 
day  of  his  life,  he  awoke  feeling  so  much  relieved  of 
suffering  that  he  rose,  allowed  himself  to  be  dressed, 
offered  his  morning  prayer,  took  a  few  steps,  and  ate 
a  little  food.  It  was  characteristic  that  his  last 
thoughts  before  the  end  came  were  directed  to  his 
beloved  Geneva,  which  for  its  own  sake,  and  as  the 
representative  of  the  cause  of  the  truth,  had  long 
been  dearer  to  him  than  life  itself.  "  Is  the  city  in 
full  safety  and  quiet  ?  "  he  asked.  Then,  on  receiv- 
ing an  affirmative  answer,  he  suddenly  sank  down, 
losing  strength  and  consciousness  at  once,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  passed  peacefully  away,  while  sorrowing 
friends  prayed  about  his  bedside.' 

A  great  man,  indeed,  had  fallen,  over  whose  mor- 
tal remains  all  that  was  highest  and  best  in  Church 
or  State  in  Geneva  did  well  to  weep,  deploring  the 
loss  that  both  State  and  Church  had  sustained. 


Heppe,  316,  317. 


Quod  nauigantibus  eft  portus,hoc  migratio  in  aliam  vitattL 
lis,  quorum  pretiofa  mors  in  oculis  Domini.   Quum  igitur,  he- 
fternadie,  magnumilludEcclefix  lumen,  R.  vir  D.  Theodorus 
Bcza,  annis  confedus,  ex  hac  momentanea  6c  xrumnofa  vica  ad 
illam,  in  qua  eft  ,  fine  perturbatione ,  aeterna  felicitas ,  placidc 
£ranftatusiit,hodie  vero  (epulturas  mandandus,  rogantur,Pafto- 
rum  ac  ProfefTorum  nomine ,  Illuftres  ac  Generoii  Domini  Co- 
rnices jB^rones,  Nobiles,  omnes  denique  litterarum  ftudiofi,qui 
in  hac  Academia  verfantur ,  vc hodie ,  hora  duodecima ,  poftre- 
mum  hunc  honorem,tanto  viro,ac  tarn  pie  defundo,  debitam, 
tribuant>vc  funus  ipfius  profequantur.  Cujus  quidemcorpus,vc 
omnium  in  Chrifto  defundorum ,  axxeifs^  c^  (pS-opoT,  gfgpB^o'g'^  0 
ai  dd^^ci/^mcL :  ita  vt  neque  mors ,  neque  vita ,  nos  ftparet  ab  illa 
diledione ,  qua  Deus  fuos  profequicur  in  Domino  noftro  lefu 
Chrifto  ,  qui  fuos  a  morte  ad  vitam  tranfinittit ,       Obiit  X 1 1 1. 
die  Odobris,  anni  C I  d.  I  d  c.  V. 

NOTICE  OF   BEZA'S   DEATH   AND    INVITATION  TO  THE   FUNERAL. 

REDUCED    FROM    ONLY    KNOWN    COPY    IN    LIBRARY   OF   THE   FRENCH    PROTESTANT   HISTORICAL   SOCIETY,    AT   PARIS. 


i6o5]  Closing  Days  35 ^ 

There  is  still  in  existence,  saved  by  one  of  those 
strange  freaks  of  fortune  which  occasionally  pre- 
serve the  most  fragile  of  shells  through  the  midst  of 
the  storms  that  dash  to  pieces  the  most  strongly 
built  frigate,  a  copy  of  the  simple  notice  that  sum- 
moned the  friends  to  attend  the  last  rites  in  Beza's 
honour.      It  runs  thus  in  translation: 

"  What  the  haven  is  to  those  that  sail,  that  is  the  re- 
moval into  another  life  to  those  whose  death  is  precious 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord.  Inasmuch,  therefore,  as  yester- 
day that  great  light  of  the  Church,  that  reverend  man. 
Doctor  Theodore  Beza,  worn  out  with  years,  was  peace- 
fully translated  from  this  transitory  and  wretched  life  to 
that  other  life  in  which  there  is  eternal  blessedness  free 
from  disquietude,  and  inasmuch  as  he  is  this  day  to  be 
consigned  to  burial,  the  illustrious  and  generous  lords, 
counts,  barons,  nobles,  all  in  fine  that  apply  themselves 
to  letters  now  present  in  this  Academy,  are  invited,  in 
the  name  of  the  Pastors  and  Professors,  to-day  at  noon, 
to  pay  this  last  honour  due  to  so  great  a  man  and  one 
that  has  died  in  so  pious  a  manner,  and  to  attend  his 
funeral.  Whose  body  indeed,  like  as  the  bodies  of  all 
that  die  in  Christ,  is  sown  in  corruption,  but  shall  be 
raised  in  incorruption  :  in  such  wise  that  neither  death 
nor  life  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  which  is  in  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord,  who  translates  His  children  from  death 
to  life.     He  died  on  the  thirteenth  of  October,  1605."  ' 

In  imitation  of  his  great  master,  John  Calvin,  and 


'  The  original  of  this  mortuary  notice  is  in  the  library  of  the 
French  Protestant  Historical  Society  in  Paris.  A'  facsimile  is 
printed  in  that  Society's  Bulletin,  xxxvi,  (1887),  81,  and  is  herewith 
reproduced. 


35^  Theodore  Beza  [1519- 

in  accordance  with  the  city  ordinances,  Theodore 
Beza,  before  his  death,  had  expressed  a  wish  that 
his  body  should  be  interred  in  the  public  cemetery 
of  Plainpalais,  outside  the  walls.  His  preference 
was  disregarded,  and  the  magistrates  ordered  that 
the  place  of  burial  be  in  the  heart  of  Geneva  itself. 
It  was  not  so  much  for  the  sake  of  conferring  su- 
perior honour  upon  the  great  theologian  and  leader 
that  this  resolution  was  reached,  as  to  forestall  the 
possibility  of  danger  to  the  republic.  A  watchful 
enemy  was  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  might  take 
advantage  of  the  moment  when  all  Geneva's  best 
citizens  and  most  valiant  soldiers  should  have  gone 
forth  accompanying  Beza's  remains  to  the  grave,  to 
make  a  sudden  attack  upon  the  defenceless  place. 
Moreover,  there  were  rumours  that  the  enemies  of 
the  Reformer  intended  at  a  later  time  to  disinter  his 
corpse  and,  if  they  exposed  it  to  no  other  indignity, 
to  carry  it  off  in  triumph  to  Rome.  Accordingly, 
it  was  to  the  buildings  then  known  as  the  cloisters  of 
the  cathedral  church  of  Saint  Pierre  that  Beza's  body 
was  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  his  former  students, 
and  was  there  laid  to  rest  within  a  stone's  throw  of 
the  sacred  edifice  where  he  had  for  so  many  years 
lectured  and  preached.  Strange  as  it  may  appear, 
during  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
cloisters,  having  fallen  into  a  ruinous  condition,  were 
torn  down,  and  the  tomb  of  Beza  shared  in  the  de- 
molition. Whither  his  remains  were  taken  is  un- 
known. It  is  as  impossible  for  the  visitor  to  Geneva 
at  the  present  time  to  discover  the  last  resting-place 
of  Theodore   Beza,   the  pupil,    as  to   identify  the 


i6o5]  Closing  Days  353 

humble  and   unmarked   grave  of  his  master,  John 
Calvin,  at  Plainpalais.' 

Church  and  State  pledged  themselves  to  one 
another  over  Beza's  grave  to  concord  and  a  union  of 
effort  for  the  welfare  of  Geneva.  Speaking  through 
his  successor  in  the  moderator's  chair,  the  Venerable 
Company  recalled  to  memory  the  fact  that  the  Re- 
former had  been  not  only  a  shining  light  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  but  a  wall  of  defence  to  the  re- 
public of  Geneva,  which  owed  to  his  prevalent  inter- 
cession every  honour  and  every  favour  which  it  had 
received  at  the  hands  of  foreign  princes.  And  the 
syndic  who  responded  in  the  name  of  the  magis- 
tracy, reciprocated  the  hope  that,  for  the  advantage 
of  the  common  country,  there  might  ever  subsist  a 
good  understanding  between  Church  and  State. 
To  the  accomplishment  of  this  end,  he  urged  that 
all  should  walk  in  the  footsteps  of  those  two  great 
men,  John  Calvin  and  Theodore  Beza,  who  had  so 
happily  served  the  interests  of  the  commonwealth.^ 

^  Charles  Borgeaud,  in  Bidletin  (for  February,  iSgg),  xlviii.,  58,  59, 
2  Gaberel,  in  Heppe,  316-318.    Borgeaud,  ubi  supra,  xlviii.,  57—76. 


APPENDIX 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL  LETTER  OF  BEZA  TO  WOLMAR 

Prefixed  to  his  "  Confession  of  the  Christian  Faith,"  and  printed  in 
the  first  volume  of  the  Tractationes  Theologic(£,  second  edition, 
revised  by  the  author  [Geneva],  1582. 

THEODORE  BEZA,  of  Vezelay,  to  Melior  [Mel- 
chior]  Wolmar  Rufus,  his  most  respected  preceptor 
and  parent,  grace  and  peace  from  the  Lord. 

As  often  as  I  recall  my  past  life  (and  this  I  do  very 
frequently  as  is  meet),  so  often  do  your  numberless  acts 
of  kindness  to  me  necessarily  come  into  my  thoughts. 
And  although  I  can  in  no  way  make  you  an  adequate 
return,  yet  am  I  resolved  to  cherish  them  as  becomes  a 
man  who  is  grateful  and  mindful  of  benefits  received. 
Since,  then,  it  has  pleased  me  to  call  this  little  book  a 
Confession, — I  have  decided  to  join  to  the  profession  of 
my  faith  the  narrative  of  my  previous  life,  and  indeed 
to  commence  at  the  very  beginning.  For  I  hope  you 
will  suffer  me,  as  it  were,  to  become  a  boy  again  in  repeat- 
ing matters  the  narration  of  which  I  trust  will  not  be 
irksome  to  you  nor  useless  to  myself. 

It  pleased  Almighty  God  that  I  should  first  see  the 
light  of  this  world  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  15 19,  on  the 
twenty-fourth  of  June,  the  day  consecrated  as  the  birth- 
day of  John  the  Baptist,  and  in  Vezelay,  the  ancient  city 
of  the  JEdm.     My  parents  were  Pierre  de  Besze  (Beza) 

355 


35^  Theodore  Beza 

and  Marie  Bourdelot,  both  of  them,  thank  God,  of  noble 
stock  (would  that  rather  they  had  been  imbued  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  true  God!)  and  of  unblemished  reputa- 
tion. I  was  educated  most  tenderly  in  the  paternal 
home,  I  had  at  that  period  an  uncle  on  my  father's 
side,  Nicholas  de  Besze,  a  member  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  who  was  indeed  himself  unmarried,  but  was  so 
fond  of  the  children  of  his  brother,  that  is,  my  father, 
that  he  would  have  been  glad  to  bring  them  at  once  to 
his  home,  and  spared  neither  expense  nor  diligence  in 
having  them  reared  in  the  most  honourable  manner. 
Having  by  chance  come  from  Paris  to  visit  his  relatives, 
he  was  seized  by  a  certain  love  for  me  when  I  was  still 
but  an  infant,  God  even  then  providing  for  my  salvation, 
and  did  not  desist  until  he  had  obtained  from  my  father 
the  permission  that,  though  I  was  still  a  babe  at  my 
nurse's  breast,  I  should  be  taken  to  Paris.  This,  as  I 
often  remember  to  have  heard,  my  mother  took  greatly 
to  heart,  as  though  foreseeing  coming  disaster;  yet,  de- 
ferring to  her  husband's  authority,  she  accompanied  me 
when  I  was  but  lately  weaned,  as  far  as  Paris.  Thence 
having  returned  home,  not  very  long  after  she  fell  from 
a  horse  and  broke  one  of  her  thighs,  and  with  her  own 
hands  set  it.  For  she  was,  as  I  have  understood, 
much  inclined,  by  a  natural  impulse  according  to  the 
notions  of  women,  to  the  study  of  physiology,  and  had 
from  infancy  exercised  herself  in  such  matters.  Most 
willingly,  and  not  without  a  certain  dexterity,  was  she 
wont  to  relieve  the  poor  in  various  ways  of  this  kind;  to 
such  a  degree  that  she  was  beloved  by  all  as  after  a 
fashion  their  common  parent.  As  for  myself,  I  account 
it  a  singular  kindness  of  God  that  it  was  His  will  that  I 
should  be  born  of  such  a  woman.  But,  to  return  to  my 
subject,   shortly  after  this,  my  mother  was  seized  with 


Appendix  357 

a  raging  fever  and  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-two  years. 
It  was  a  great  loss  to  our  family.  She  left  seven  child- 
ren, namely,  four  girls  and  three  boys,  of  whom  I  was 
the  youngest,  having  not  yet  completed  my  third  year. 

Meantime,  though  I  was  brought  up  at  Paris  with  the 
greatest  care,  I  was  rather  dying  than  living;   for  I  was 
so  prostrated  by  continual  languor  that  it  was    almost 
five  years  before  I  left  .the  cradle.     And  scarcely  had  I 
left  it  when  unfortunately  I  contracted  a  cutaneous  dis- 
ease from  an  attendant   with   whom   as   a   child   I   was 
playing,    ignorant   of   the    danger   of    contagion.      The 
malady  was  of  itself  obstinate,  but  at  that  time  particu- 
larly severe,  because  the  unskilfulness  of  the  physicians, 
although  in  a  very  celebrated  city,  was  such  that  they 
used  only  the   strongest   and   therefore   the  most  cruel 
drugs  to  expel  the  disease.     My  mind  shudders  to  re- 
member what  tortures  I  underwent  at  that  time,  my  uncle 
looking  on  with  pity  and  trying  everything  to  no  purpose. 
And  here,  too,  I  wish  to  relate  a  singular  example  of  the 
Divine   kindness   to   me.     Since   the   surgeon  who   had 
undertaken  to  treat  me  used  to  come  to  our  house,  and 
my  uncle  would  on  no  consideration  permit  him  even  to 
lay  his   finger  on  me  in   his  absence  (so  tenderly  and 
ardently  did  he  love  me),  this  most  humane  man  could 
no  longer  be  the  witness  of  such  great  suffering.     He 
therefore  ordered  his  valet  de  chambre  to  accompany  me 
daily,   together  with  a  relation  of  mine  whom   he   was 
rearing  with  me,  and  who  had  been  attacked  by  the  same 
complaint,  to  the  house  of  the  surgeon,  since  he  could 
not  even  bear  the  sight  of  the  latter.     My  uncle  resided 
in  that  part  of  the  city  which  is  known  as  the  "  Univer- 
sity "  [the  part  south  of  the  river  Seine].     The  surgeon, 
on  the  other  hand,  lived  not  far  from  the  royal  castle 
called  the  "  Louvre,"  the  two  quarters  being  united  by 


35^  Theodore  Beza 

a  bridge  that  takes  its  designation  from  the  Millers  \^Pont 
des  Meimiers].  So,  then,  we  had  to  cross  this  bridge  to 
our  daily  tortures,  which  were  particularly  intolerable  at 
that  time  of  life.  We  would  hurry  on  and  the  servant 
followed,  as  servants  are  wont  to  do,  without  watching 
us  carefully  enough.  Here  I  remember  (and  my  mind 
shudders  at  the  remembrance)  my  kinsman,  who  even 
then  breathed  a  warlike  spirit,  often  urged  that  we  should 
cast  ourselves  into  the  river  that  flowed  below,  and  thus 
once  for  all  deliver  ourselves  from  our  sufferings.  I, 
being  more  timid  by  nature,  was  at  first  horrified,  but 
afterwards,  compelled  by  the  violence  of  my  suffering  and 
greatly  pressed  by  him,  1  promised  that  I  would  follow 
his  example.  So,  then,  but  this  one  thing  remained  for 
Satan  to  effect  our  ruin,  when  the  Lord,  having  compas- 
sion on  us,  brought  it  to  pass  that  my  uncle,  chancing  to 
return  from  court  without  suspecting  anything  of  the 
kind,  met  us  and,  noticing  that  the  servant  followed  us 
afar  off,  bade  us  return  home  and  ordered  that  the  sur- 
geon should  resume  his  visits  to  our  house.  Thus,  then, 
the  Lord  rescued  us  as  from  the  jaws  of  Satan  himself, 
and  put  it  into  the  mind  of  my  uncle,  as  soon  as  I  had 
been  healed  of  that  disease,  to  have  me  taught  at  home 
by  a  tutor  to  distinguish  the  forms  of  the  letters  and  to 
unite  syllables.  For  God  was  so  favourable  and  kind 
that  my  uncle  determined  to  devote  me  wholly  to  the 
study  of  letters.  ■ 

Here  again  God  preserved  me  in  a  marked  and  alto- 
gether unexpected  way.  For  whereas  I  was  living  in 
that  city  which  heretofore  had  been  esteemed  the  most 
flourishing  school  of  the  whole  inhabited  world,  it  came 
to  pass  that,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  all  our  friends,  and 
on  a  sudden  impulse,  rather  than  by  calm  judgment,  I 
was  sent  to  Orle^n^  to  you,  my  revered  teacher,  who  at 


Appendix  359 

that  time  had  established  there  a  school  for  the  training 
of  a  few  select  youths.  Now  you  yourself  were  altogether 
unknown  to  my  uncle,  but  by  the  singular  providence  of 
God  it  happened  that  on  one  occasion  there  supped  with 
him  a  certain  one  of  our  kinsmen,  a  citizen  of  Orleans  and 
a  member  of  the  king's  greater  council.  When  this  man 
caught  sight  of  me,  he  remarked  that  he  had  a  son  of  his 
own  of  just  my  age,  whom  he  had  placed  under  the  in- 
struction of  one  Wolmar,  a  man  most  learned  in  the 
Greek  language — a  thing  that  was  at  that  time  quite 
a  novelty — and  possessed  of  wonderful  skill  in  the  train- 
ing of  youth,  according  to  the  judgment  of  Nicholas 
Berauld  and  Pierre  Stella  [L'Estoile],  most  learned  men. 
Thereupon  my  uncle,  doubtless  inspired  thereto  by  God, 
not  only  welcomed  the  suggestion,  but  solemnly  promised 
shortly  to  send  me  to  Orleans,  and  asked  his  guest  to  be 
permitted  to  make  me  the  companion  of  the  latter' s  son. 
Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  I  reached  you  on  the  nones 
of  December  [the  fifth  of  December]  of  the  year  of  Our 
Lord  1528 — a  day  which  I  am  wont  with  justice  to  cele- 
brate not  otherwise  than  as  a  second  biithday.  For  that 
day  was  in  my  case  the  beginning  of  all  the  good  things 
which  I  have  received  from  that  time  forward  and  which 
I  trust  to  receive  hereafter  in  my  future  life.  For,  from 
the  time  when  you  received  me,  a  mere  boy,  into  your 
house  to  train  me  in  company  with  pupils  of  great  pro- 
mise already  more  advanced  in  their  studies,  what  labour 
did  you  not  of  your  own  accord  undergo  in  forming  me  ? 
What  trouble  did  you  not  take  in  teaching  me,  first  at 
Orleans,  afterwards  at  Bourges,  when  the  Queen  of  Na- 
varre had  called  you  thither  by  the  offer  of  an  honour- 
able salary  to  profess  Greek  literature  ?  In  fine,  what 
exertions  did  you  not  put  forth  in  order  not  to  appear 
wanting  in  your  duty  to  me  in  any  direction  ?     for  I  can 


360  Theodore  Beza 

truly  affirm  that  there  was  no  famous  Greek  or  Latin 
writer  of  whom  I  did  not  get  a  taste  in  the  seven  years 
which  I  spent  with  you;  that  there  was  no  liberal  study, 
not  even  excepting  jurisprudence,  whose  elements,  at 
least,  I  did  not  learn  with  you  as  my  instructor.  You 
wished  indeed  to  have  only  a  few  pupils,  but  all  these 
you  desired  so  to  train,  that  when  you  sent  them  out  you 
might  have  in  them  so  many  witnesses  in  the  family  of 
your  unbounded  diligence.  Nor  did  this  expectation 
cheat  you.  A  thing  happened  to  you  which  has  hap- 
pened to  very  few  others :  I  can  scarcely  remember  that 
anyone  left  your  school,  excepting  me  alone,  who  did 
not  attain  to  notable  learning.  It  was,  however,  by  far 
the  greatest  of  the  benefits  I  received  at  your  hands,  that 
you  so  imbued  me  with  the  knov/ledge  of  true  piety 
sought  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Word  of  God,  as  in  the 
most  limpid  fountain,  that  I  should  be  the  most  ungrate- 
ful and  churlish  of  men  did  I  not  cherish  and  honour 
you,  I  say  not  as  an  instructor  but  as  a  parent.  When 
your  wife's  father  induced  you  to  return  from  France  to 
Germany,  what  stone  did  you  and  your  gentle  wife  leave 
unturned  to  induce  my  father  to  permit  me  to  accom- 
pany you  to  Germany  ?  So  much  did  both  of  you  love 
me  and  so  much  in  turn  did  I  revere  you,  that  it  was 
only  with  the  greatest  reluctance  that  you  left  me  behind, 
and  only  with  the  greatest  sorrow  could  I  tear  myself 
away  from  you. 

That  first  day  of  May,  therefore,  was  fixed  in  my  mind 
and  will  always  remain  there,  on  which  I  was  dragged 
from  you,  and  you  departed  toward  Lyons,  while  I  in  ac- 
cordance with  my  father's  directions  set  out  for  Orleans. 
I  do  not  remember  nor  shall  I  ever  remember  a  day  of 
greater  sadness  and  grief. 

Three  days  later,  in  the  course  of  the  year  1535,   I 


Appendix  361 

reached  Orleans  with  the  purpose  of  applying  myself  to 
the  civil  law.  But  there,  being  strangely  averse  to  this 
study,  which  was  taught  in  a  barbarous  manner  and 
without  method,  while  pursuing  it  I  spent  a  much  greater 
part  of  my  time  in  polite  literature  and  in  the  perusal 
of  the  writers  of  the  two  [classical]  languages.  I  took 
wonderful  delight  in  the  study  of  Poetry,  to  which  I 
felt  myself  drawn  by  a  certain  natural  impulse.  This 
led  me  to  have  the  closest  intimacy  with  all  the  most 
learned  men  of  that  University,  men  who  at  present  are 
enjoying  the  greatest  honours  in  France.  At  that  time 
they  greatly  incited  me  to  join  with  civil  law  the  study 
of  polite  literature  and  poetical  culture.  Here  there- 
fore before  my  twentieth  year  I  composed  almost  all 
those  Poems  which,  a  few  years  later,  I  published  and 
dedicated  to  you.  Although  there  are  among  them  several 
written  with  somewhat  too  great  freedom,  that  is  to  say, 
in  imitation  of  Catullus  and  Ovid,  yet  I  by  no  means 
feared  at  that  time,  nor  do  I  even  now  fear,  that  anybody 
who  then  knew  what  sort  of  a  man  I  was,  would  judge  of 
my  moral  character  by  these  fictitious  exercises.  But  of 
this  hereafter. 

Accordingly  I  thus  lived  in  Orleans,  in  company  with 
most  honourable  and  learned  men,  until  I  was  promoted 
to  the  grade  of  licentiate,  as  it  is  called.  This  occurred, 
I  remember,  on  the  second  day  before  the  Calends  of 
August  [the  thirtieth  day  of  July],  1539,  when  I  had  en- 
tered upon  the  twentieth  year  of  my  life.  I  then  returned 
to  Paris.  My  uncle  and  ' '  Maecenas  ' '  had  died  some  years 
before,  but  another  uncle  was  still  alive,  the  Abbe  of 
Froidmont,  who  loved  me  just  as  much.  But,  good  God! 
how  important  it  is  for  us  that  we  have  friends  not  only 
rich  and  loyal,  but  also  truly  pious  and  religious!  Cer- 
tainly those  who  were  most  desirous  of  being  of  advantage 


362  Theodore  Beza 

to  me  came  as  nearly  as  possible  to  ruining  me.  When  I 
reached  Paris,  first  of  all,  I  found  that  many  members  of 
Parliament,  partly  kinsmen  and  connexions,  partly  old 
friends  of  our  family  and  these  personally  very  friendly 
to  me,  had  conceived  great  hopes  of  me  in  consequence 
of  the  opinions  expressed  by  certain  persons.  To  tliis 
fact  was  added  the  circumstance  that  I  had  been  loaded 
— I  a  lean  youth  and  moreover,  as  I  testify  truthfully, 
utterly  ignorant  of  such  matters,  and  in  my  absence — 
with  two  fat  and  rich  benefices,  the  revenues  of  which 
amounted  annually  to  seven  hundred  crowns,  more  or 
less.  Moreover,  my  uncle,  whose  abbacy  was  valued 
at  not  less  than  five  thousand  crowns  a  year,  had  men- 
tally designated  me  as  his  successor.  Finally,  my  eldest 
brother,  whose  health  was  even  then  so  infirm  as  to  be 
despaired  of,  held  certain  other  benefices  in  reserve  for 
me.  In  short,  I  found  an  infinite  number  of  snares  laid 
for  me  on  every  side  by  Satan.  As  for  myself,  I  shall 
here  confess,  as  I  ought,  how  matters  stood.  I  had 
previously  determined  that  as  soon  as  I  should  be  master 
of  myself  and  should  have  obtained  certain  resources, 
I  would  leave  France  and  go  to  you,  preferring  the  free- 
dom of  a  pure  conscience  to  all  other  things.  I  used 
very  often  to  beg  of  God  with  prayers  and  tears  to 
hearken  to  me,  bound  as  I  was  by  this  vow.  But  I  was 
young  and  abundantly  provided  by  my  relatives  with 
leisure,  with  money,  with  all  things,  in  short,  rather  than 
with  good  counsel,  when  Satan  suddenly  threw  all  these 
things  in  my  way.  I  confess  that  I  was  so  allured  by 
the  empty  glitter  and  vain  enticements  of  these  things 
that  I  suffered  myself  to  be  wholly  drawn  hither  and 
thither.  But  why  should  I  here  relate  the  infinite  perils 
in  which  I  involved  myself,  casting  knowledge  and  dis- 
cretion to  the  winds  ?     How  often  at  home  and  abroad 


Appendix  363 

did  I  risk  body  and  soul  ?  Yet  while  the  recollection  of 
all  that  period  cannot  but  be  on  many  accounts  very 
bitter,  on  the  other  hand  the  singular  and  incredible 
kindness  of  Almighty  God  to  me  causes  me  to  be  filled, 
as  often  as  I  remember  them,  with  a  certain  marvellous 
delight,  as  I  recognise  within  me  the  clearest  and  most 
distinct  exemplifications  of  the  fatherly  care  with  which 
that  best  of  fathers  has  promised  to  attend  His  elect. 
For  though  I  had  of  my  own  accord  strayed  from  the 
way.  He  never  suffered  me  so  to  wander  that  I  did  not 
very  often  utter  groanings  and  cling  fast  to  that  vow 
which  I  had  made  regarding  an  entire  repudiation  of  the 
papal  religion.  In  fine  He  brought  it  to  pass  that  I  so 
ordered  my  life  that,  by  His  singular  kindness,  though  I 
deserved  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  distinction,  I  was 
held  to  be  in  piety  not  the  lowest  among  the  pious,  nor  in 
culture  altogether  rude  among  the  cultivated.  Besides 
those  hindrances  which  I  have  mentioned,  Satan  had 
thrown  about  me  a  triple  snare,  namely,  the  allurements 
of  pleasure  that  are  so  great  in  that  city,  the  sweets  of 
petty  glory  which,  in  the  judgment  of  Marcus  Antonius 
Flaminius,  himself  a  very  learned  poet  and  an  Italian,  I 
had  attained  in  no  small  measure  by  the  publication  es- 
pecially of  my  Epigrams,  and,  lastly,  the  expectation  set 
before  me  of  the  greatest  honours,  to  which  some  of  the 
leading  members  of  the  court  called  me,  while  my  friends 
incited  me,  and  my  father  and  uncle  did  not  cease  from 
exhorting  me.  Yet  it  was  God's  will  that  I  who,  wretched 
man  that  I  was,  had  entered  so  perilous  a  path  with  my 
eyes  open,  should  escape  these  dangers  also.  For,  in 
the  first  place,  that  I  might  not  be  overcome  by  those 
base  desires,  I  espoused  a  wife,  secretly  however,  I  confess 
it,  and  with  the  privity  of  only  two  pious  friends,  partly 
that  I  might  not  scandalise  others,  partly  because  I  could 


3^4  Theodore  Beza 

not  as  yet  bring  myself  to  renounce  that  accursed  money 
which  I  derived  from  priestly  benefices,  **  as  the  un- 
clean dog  cannot  be  frightened  off  from  the  besmeared 
leather"  [see  Horace,  Sat.,  ii.,  5,  ^^^  There  was, 
however,  added  to  the  rite  of  betrothal  an  express  pro- 
mise that  I  would  at  the  very  first  opportunity  put  all 
hindrances  aside  and  bring  my  wife  to  the  Church  of 
God  and  there  publicly  ratify  my  marriage  with  her, 
engaging  meanwhile  to  bind  myself  to  none  of  the  popish 
orders.  Both  of  these  engagements  at  a  subsequent 
time  I  religiously  fulfilled. 

Moreover  the  same  most  kind  Father  effected  my  de- 
termined rejection  of  that  paltry  glory  and  the  honours 
held  forth  to  me,  to  the  wonder  of  my  friends  and  the 
reprehension  of  most  of  them,  who  jocularly  styled  me 
"  the  new  philosopher."  Meantime  I  was  still  plunged 
in  the  mire.  My  friends  urged  me  at  length  to  embrace 
some  kind  of  life.  My  uncle  placed  everything  at  my 
disposal.  On  the  one  side,  conscience  pressed  me  and 
my  spouse  called  on  me  to  fulfil  my  promise.  On  the 
other,  Satan  with  most  placid  countenance  used  his 
blandishments.  My  income  was  made  greater  by  the 
death  of  my  brother.  I  lay  as  it  were  incapable  of  com- 
ing to  a  decision  in  the  midst  of  this  mental  solicitude. 
How  wonderfully  the  Lord  had  compassion  upon  me,  I 
shall  here  most  cheerfully  narrate. 

Lo!  He  inflicts  upon  me  a  very  severe  illness,  to  such 
a  point  that  I  almost  despaired  of  life.  What  should  I 
do,  wretched  man  that  I  was,  when  I  saw  before  me 
naught  but  the  terrible  judgment  of  God  ?  What  more 
shall  I  say  ?  After  infinite  tortures  of  mind  and  body, 
the  Lord,  pitying  His  runaway  slave,  so  consoled  me  that 
I  entertained  no  doubts  of  the  concession  of  His  pardon 
to   me.     Therefore    I    renounced  myself  with   tears,    I 


Appendix  365 

asked  for  forgiveness,  I  renewed  my  vow  openly  to  em- 
brace His  true  worship — in  short,  I  consecrated  myself 
wholly  to  Him.  Thus  did  it  come  to  pass  that  the  image 
of  death,  seriously  confronting  me,  excited  in  me  the  de- 
sire of  the  true  life  that  lay  dormant  and  buried,  and 
that  disease  was  for  me  the  beginning  of  a  true  sound- 
ness. So  wonderful  is  the  Lord  in  that  He  casts  down 
and  raises  up,  wounds  and  makes  whole  again  His  child- 
ren by  one  and  the  same  stroke. 

As  soon  therefore  as  I  could  leave  my  bed,  I  burst 
asunder  every  chain,  collected  my  effects,  forsook  at  once 
my  native  land,  my  kinsmen,  my  friends,  that  I  might 
follow  after  Christ,  and,  accompanied  by  my  wife,  betook 
myself  to  Geneva  in  voluntary  exile.  Accordingly,  on 
the  ninth  day  before  the  Calends  of  November  [the 
twenty-fourth  of  October],  a.d.  1548,  having  left  Egypt 
I  entered  that  city,  and  there  found  what  previously  I 
could  not  even  suspect,  although  I  had  heard  the  com- 
monwealth greatly  praised  by  certain  pious  men.  There 
I  took  up  my  abode.  Subsequently  while  I  was  revolv- 
ing in  mind  what  course  of  life  I  should  pursue,  and 
after  I  had  made  a  visit  to  you,  my  father,  at  Tiibingen, 
lo!  as  I  anticipated  nothing  of  the  sort,  the  Academy  of 
Lausanne  called  me  thither  to  be  a  professor  of  Greek 
Literature.  The  illustrious  Council  of  Bern  having 
ratified  this  invitation,  I  was  compelled  to  follow  the  call 
of  Christ.  Accordingly  in  the  following  year  I  came  to 
Lausanne.  There,  thank  God,  I  believe  that  I  so  lived 
in  the  society  of  my  colleagues,  most  learned  and  excel- 
lent men,  as  not  to  displease  any  good  person.  From 
that  place,  after  ten  years,  partly  because  I  was  desirous 
of  giving  myself  altogether  to  Theology,  partly  for  other 
reasons  which  need  not  here  be  recorded,  I  returned 
again,  with  the  kind  permission  of  the  Council,  to  this 


3<^6  Theodore  Beza 

city  [Geneva]  as  to  a  most  peaceful  haven.  It  was  not 
so  much  my  own  will  that  brought  me,  as  the  judgment 
of  men  of  the  greatest  authority  that  compelled  me  to 
come,  that  I  might  assume  the  office  of  the  sacred  minis- 
try. May  the  Lord  supply  me  such  strength  to  sustain 
this  very  weighty  burden,  that  I  may  discharge  its  duties 
with  some  edification  of  the  Church! 

You  have  here,  my  father,  a  brief  narrative  of  the 
entire  life  of  your  pupil,  nay,  rather,  of  your  son  who 
was  too  unseasonably  torn  away  from  you.  I  have 
written  it,  because  I  am  wont  gladly  to  view,  and  not 
without  very  great  profit  to  myself,  so  many  examples  of 
the  divine  providence  for  my  preservation.  Nor  do  I 
doubt  that  you,  above  all  others,  are  wont  to  be  similarly 
affected  by  my  success.  I  wrote  this  Confession  of  my 
Faith  at  first  in  the  French  language,  for  the  purpose  of 
satisfying  my  own  father,  whom  the  calumnies  of  certain 
persons  had  alienated  from  me,  as  though  I  had  been  an 
impious  man  and  a  heretic,  and  with  the  further  view  of 
winning  him,  if  possible,  to  Christ  in  his  extreme  old 
age.  Subsequently  I  was  urged  to  publish  it,  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  do  so.  I  have  put  it  in  Latin;  if  only  I 
am  suffered  by  the  learned  to  call  Latin  what  I  have  pre- 
ferred to  express  in  a  simple  and  artless  mode  of  speech, 
rather  than  adorn  by  a  far-fetched  and  abstruse  elo- 
quence. These  same  subjects,  I  confess,  have  been 
happily  set  forth  by  many  writers,  especially  in  this 
century  of  ours,  and  indeed  among  the  first  (for  I  shall 
state  the  case  as  it  is,  despite  the  prattle  of  envy)  by 
that  great  John  Calvin,  my  second  parent;  who  has 
treated  of  all  these  matters  very  copiously  in  his  Insti- 
tutes, and  very  briefly  but  very  accurately  in  his  Cate- 
chism of  this  Church  [of  Geneva].  From  these  books 
also  I  profess  to  have  derived  the  present  work.     But 


Appendix  3^7 


where  there  is  such  a  superabundance  of  viands,  nothing 
forbids  that  the  same  feast  be  repeated  with  a  slight 
change  in  the  arrangement,  to  the  great  enjoyment  of 
those  that  partake.  Moreover,  I  deem  most  useful  the 
zeal  of  those  who  compose  short  and  perspicuous  sum- 
maries of  these  controversies,  in  order  that  such  persons 
as  apply  themselves  to  the  reading  of  the  Sacred  Script- 
ures m.ay  have  certain  heads  ready  at  hand,  to  each  of 
which  they  may  afterwards  refer  and  accommodate  what 
they  read.  In  fine,  I  hope  that  some  of  my  readers 
may  admit  that  they  have  received  some  profit  from  this 
labour  of  mine. 

Moreover  I  have  desired  to  dedicate  to  you  this  treatise, 
whatever  it  may  amount  to,  partly  because  it  is  very  just 
that  you  should  reap  some  fruit  from  the  field  which  you 
first  sowed,  of  such  sort  as  can  be  gathered  from  land 
not  over  fertile;  partly  in  order  that,  in  place  of  those 
books  of  Epigrams  of  mine,  which  you  desired  me  again 
to  publish,  you  flight  receive  this  book  which  is  infinitely 
better  and  more  holy.  For  so  far  as  respects  them,  who 
is  there  that  has  condemned  them  more  than  I,  their  un- 
happy author,  have  done,  or  who  to-day  detests  them 
more  ?  Would  therefore  that  they  might  now  at  length 
be  buried  in  a  perpetual  oblivion!  And  may  the  Lord, 
as  I  hope  may  be  the  case,  grant  that,  since  that  which 
has  once  been  done  can  never  be  undone,  those  persons 
who  hereafter  read  writings  of  mine  very  diverse  from 
those  poems,  shall  rather  congratulate  me  upon  the  great- 
ness of  God's  goodness  to  me,  than  accuse  him  who 
voluntarily  confesses  and  deplores  the  fault  of  his  youth. 
Farewell.  Geneva,  this  fourth  day  before  the  Ides  of 
March  [the  twelfth  of  March],  a.d.  1560. 


TRANSCRIPT  OF  BEZA'S  LETTER  TO  PTTHOU. 

Monsieur  et  Frere. — J'espere  que  le  present  porteur  ne  se  re- 
pentira  de  son  voyage,  estant  advenu  ce  que  luy  auiez  [aviez]  bien 
conseille.  Oultre  cela,  ie  ne  fauldroy,  aydant  le  Seigneur,  de  faire 
ce  que  ie  pourray  pour  I'instruction  de  son  filz,  comme  non  seule- 
ment  nostre  amitie  le  requiert,  mais  aussi  le  debvoir  le  nous  com- 
mande.  Quant  a  mes  lettres  envoyees  par  dela,  ie  souhaitte  qu'elles 
puissent  profifiter,  et  non  seulement  cela,  mais  aussi  que  chascun 
pense  a  soy  de  plus  pres  en  une  telle  et  si  extreme  affliction  si  peu 
consideree  de  tons  que  ie  ne  me  puis  assez  esmerveiller  d'une  telle 
stupidite,  laquelle  vous  s^avez  estre  des  plus  dangereuses  maladies, 
et  des  plus  approchantes  de  la  mort.  Nostre  bon  Dieu  y  vueille  bien 
pourveoir,  et  face  pour  le  moins  que  tous  ceulx  qui  ne  se  sont 
encores  du  tout  endormis,  se  resveillent  si  bien  que  le  Seigneur 
quand  il  viendra  (et  qui  est  celuy  qui  sait  quand  il  viendra  ?)  ne  les 
trouve  dormans. 

Quant  a  I'affaire  du  feu  Seigneur  de  passy,  Je  vous  en  envoye 
le  sommaire  a  la  pure  verite,  et  tel  que  ceste  Seigneurie  I'a  accorde 
a  quelcun  qui  I'a  requis  pour  s'en  servir.  J'avois  desia  envoye 
la  prononciation  du  proces  telle  qu'elle  se  fait  pardega,  comme 
vous  savez.  Je  vous  prie  d'user  de  prudence  a  communicquer  le  tout 
a  ceulx  qu'il  sera  de  besoin,  non  pas  qu'on  puisse  ny  vueille  rien 
celer  d'un  tel  et  si  clair  iugement  de  Dieu,  mais  pource  que  ie  ne 
vouldroye  adiouster  affliction  aux  affligez,  et  quoy  qu'il  en  soit  la 
repentance  et  confession  du  paoure  homme  a  I'extremite,  m'asseurant 
que  le  Seigneur  a  couvert  ses  faultes,  me  faict  desirer  que  I'ignominie 
en  soit  aussi  abolie  devant  les  hommes,  autant  qu'il  est  expedient 
pour  la  gloire  du  Seigneur.  Je  say  bien  que  chascun  en  donnera  sa 
sentence,  et  que  Satan  ne  nous  espargnera.  Mais  i'espere  que  les 
sages  se  souviendront  de  I'advertissement  du  Seigneur  nous  defendant 
de  iuger  temerairement  de  noz  freres,  et  a  plus  forte  raison,  de  mal 
estimer  de  toute  une  Seigneurie  et  eglise  Chrestienne,  oultre  ce  qu'a 
mon  advis  maintenant  les  plus  difficiles  auront  de  quoy  estre  satis- 

368 


Appendix  369 

faicts.  Quant  aux  aultres,  qui  en  iugeront  comme  il  leur  plaist, 
c'est  a  Dieu  de  leur  fermer  la  bouche,  auquel  aussi  nous  appellons 
de  toutes  folles  sentences  donnees  en  tant  de  lieux  centre  nous.  Au 
reste,  graces  a  Dieu,  nous  suyvons  nostre  petit  train,  heureusement 
et  paisiblement  iusques  a  present,  Les  bruicts  continuent  et  non 
sans  apparence.  Mais  le  Seigneur  auquel  nous  esperons,  pourvoyra 
a  tout,  s'il  luy  plaist.  Ce  sera  I'endroit  ou  ie  prieray  nostre  bon 
Dieu  et  pere  qu'en  Vous  niultipliant  ses  graces,  il  vous  maintiene 
touts  en  sa  saincte  et  digue  garde,  apres  m'estre  bien  fort  recom- 
niende  a  vos  bonnes  prieres.     De  Geneve,  ce  22  d'avril,  1566, 

Vostre  entier  frere  et  amy, 

Th.  de  Besze. 
A  Monsieur, 

Monsieur  PiTHOU, 
A  Troyes. 


TRANSLATION. 

My  dear  Brother. — I  hope  that  the  present  bearer  will  not  re- 
pent of  his  journey,  that  having  happened  to  him  of  which  you  gave 
him  good  advice.  Beyond  that  I  shall  not  fail,  with  the  Lord's  help, 
to  do  what  I  can  for  the  instruction  of  his  son,  as  not  only  does  our 
friendship  demand  but  our  duty  bids  us.  As  to  my  letters  sent  to 
your  quarters,  I  wish  that  they  may  be  of  advantage,  and  not  only 
that,  but  also  that  every  man  may  consider  himself  more  closely  in 
such  and  so  extreme  an  affliction  so  little  regarded  by  all  that  I  can- 
not sufficiently  marvel  at  such  insensibility,  which  you  know  to  be 
among  the  most  dangerous  maladies  and  most  approaching  to  death. 
May  our  good  God  be  pleased  to  provide  well  therefor,  and  grant  at 
least  that  all  those  who  are  not  yet  altogether  asleep,  may  awake  so 
thoroughly  that  when  the  Lord  shall  come  (and  who  knows  when  He 
will  come  ?)  He  shall  not  find  them  sleeping. 

As  to  the  affair  of  the  late  Lord  of  Passy,  I  shall  send  you  the 
summary  according  to  the  pure  truth  and  such  as  this  Seigniory  fur- 
nished it  to  a  person  who  applied  for  it  in  order  to  make  use  of  it. 
I  had  already  sent  you  the  rendering  of  the  sentence  as  it  is  practised 
here  as  you  know.  I  pray  you  to  use  prudence  in  communicating 
the  whole  to  those  to  whom  it  may  be  necessary  to  do  so  ;  not  that 
it  may  be  possible  or  desirable  to  hide  anything  in  such  and  so  clear 


2,70  Theodore  Beza 

a  judgment  of  God,  but  because  I  would  not  add  affliction  to  the 
afflicted,  and,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  poor  man's  repentance  and  con- 
fession at  the  end  giving  me  the  assurance  that  the  Lord  has  covered 
his  faults,  make  me  desire  that  its  ignominy  may  also  be  abolished 
in  the  sight  of  men,  so  far  as  is  expedient  for  the  glory  of  the  Lord. 
I  know  well  that  everybody  will  pass  his  own  judgment,  and  that 
Satan  will  not  spare  us.  But  I  hope  that  the  wise  will  call  to  mind 
the  Lord's  warning  that  forbids  us  to  judge  rashly  of  our  brethren, 
and  therefore  with  still  greater  reason  to  think  ill  of  an  entire 
Christian  Seigniory  and  Church  ;  beside  that  in  my  opinion  the  most 
captious  will  now  have  grounds  for  being  satisfied.  As  to  the  others 
who  will  judge  as  they  please,  it  is  God's  province  to  stop  their 
mouths,  and  to  Him  we  appeal  from  all  foolish  judgments  passed  in 
so  many  places  against  us.  Meanwhile,  thanks  to  God,  we  pursue 
our  usual  course,  happily  and  peacefully  until  now.  Rumours  con- 
tinue not  without  colour  of  probability.  But  the  Lord  in  whom  we 
hope,  will  provide  for  everything,  if  it  be  His  good  pleasure.  And 
hereupon  I  shall  pray  our  good  God  and  Father  that  multiplying  His 
favours  to  you.  He  may  keep  you  all  in  His  holy  and  worthy  care, 
and  commend  myself  to  your  good  prayers.  From  Geneva,  this 
twenty-second  of  April,  1566. 

Your  devoted  brother  and  friend, 

Theodore  de  Beze. 
To  Mr.  PiTHOU, 

At  Troyes. 


INDEX 


Abjuration   of    Henry  IV.,  320, 

foil. 
Admonition  to  Parliament,   267 
Alen9on,   Margaret,   Duchess  of, 

290  ;  sec  Angouleme,  Margaret 

of 
Amboise,  Tumult  of,  121 
Andelot,  Fran9ois  d',  131 
Andrece,  Jacob,  85,  90,  285,  286 
Angelic  Salutation,  291 
Angouleme,  Margaret  of,  9 


B 


Beauvais,  124 

Bellius,  Martin,  53,  57 

Beraud,  F.,  107 

Berauld,  Nicholas,  7 

Bern,  39, /<?//.,  73,  99, /<?//. 

Bertram,  Corneille,  330 

Beza,  or,  de  Beze,  John,  74,  75 

Beza,  or,  de  Beze,  Nicholas 
(the  elder),  5,  16  ;  (the 
younger),  328 

Beza,  or,  de  Beze,  Pierre,  Bailli 
of  Vezelay,  father  of  Theodore, 
4,  75.  328,  329 

Beza,  Theodore,  his  birth,  June 
14,  1519,4;  childhood  and 
youth,  5-15  ;  student  under 
Wolmar,  at  Orleans,  8  ;  and  at 
Bourges,  9  ;  returns  to  study 
civil  law  at  Orleans,  12  ;  culti- 
vates poetry,  13  ;  his  popular- 
ity, 14  ;  stay  at  Paris,  16. 
foil.  ;  prospects  of  wealth  and 
preferment,  ib.  ;  aversion  to 
24 


the  practice  of  law,  18  ;  studies, 
22-24 ;  secret  marriage  to 
Claudine  Desnoz,  25,  34  ;  pub- 
lishes his  Juvenilia,  27  ;  char- 
acter of  this  work,  28-31  ;  his 
illness  and  conversion,  32, 
foil.  ;  he  leaves  France,  under 
assumed  name  of  Thibaud  de 
May,  33  ;  first  plans,  35  ; 
personal  appearance  and  nat- 
ural endowments,  37  ;  visits 
Wolmar  at  Tubingen,  38  ; 
professor  of  Greek  at  the 
University  of  Lausanne,  39- 
48  ;  his  tragedy,  Abraham's 
Sacrifice,  49,  foil.  ;  treatise 
on  the  punishment  of  heretics, 
c,2,  foil.  ;  intercessions  for  the 
"  Five  Scholars  of  Lausanne," 
73  ;  his  father  and  brother 
strive   to  bring  him  back,  74- 

76  ;  his  new  field  of  usefulness, 

77  ;  helps  to  secure  renewal  of 
alliance  between  Bern  and 
Geneva,  79,  80  ;  labours  for 
the  persecuted  Vaudois  in 
Switzerland  and  Germany,  83, 
foil.  ;  tries  to  reconcile 
Lutherans  and  Calvinists,  85, 
foil.  ;  to  influence  the  French 
and  Swiss  to  entreat  Henry 
IT.  for  persecuted  Parisians, 
88,  foil.  ;  his  irenic  confes- 
sion, 91,  92  ;  his  utterances  dis- 
quiet Bullinger,  92,  foil.;  but 
he  is  defended  by  Calvin,  94  ; 
his  reasons  for  leaving  Lau- 
sanne, 96,  foil,  ;  becomes  Cal- 
vin's   coadjutor     at     Geneva, 


371 


Z1^ 


Index 


Beza,  Theodore  C  Continued  J 
103  ;  speech  as  Rector  of  the 
Academic,  at  its  solemn  open- 
ing, 106  ;  his  self-sacrifice, 
108  ;  he  is  invited  to  Nerac 
by  the  King  of  Navarre,  iii- 
114;  invited  to  Poissy,  136, 
foil.  ;  his  reception  at  court, 
139.  ML  ;  at  the  Colloquy  of 
Poissy,  153, /<?//.  /  his  s[)eech, 
\b2,  foil.  ;  he  is  interrupted, 
185  ;  his  great  success,  189  ; 
letter  to  the  queen-mother, 
190  ;  he  is  answered  by  Cardi- 
nal Lorraine,  192  ;  detained 
in  France  by  Catharine  de' 
Medici,  199  ;  protests  after 
the  Massacre  of  Vassy,  206  ; 
his  memorable  words  to  the 
King  of  Navarre,  208  ;  the 
counsellor  of  Conde,  210, 
foil,  ;  his  letter  to  the  Queen 
of  Navarre,  212,  foil.  ;  author 
of  Conde's  letter  to  the  "  Tri- 
umvirs," 217,  foil.  ;  his  serv- 
ices, 223  ;  at  the  battle  of 
Dreux,  225  ;  returns  to  Geneva, 

226  ;  a  price  set  on  his  head, 

227  ;  he  is  warmly  received  by 
the  city  and  by  Calvin,  228, 
229  ;  defends  himself  against 
Claude  de  Sainctes,  231  ; 
writes  a  life  of  Calvin,  232, 
foil.  ;  his  edition  of  the  Greek 
New  Testament,  234,  foil. ; 
his  Latin  version,  236,  foil.  ; 
his  broad  sympathies,  239, 
foil.  ;  his  letter  regarding 
Spifame's  execution,  2^2,  foil.; 
presides  over  National  Synod 
of  La  Rochelle,  245,  foil.  ; 
after  the  Massacre  of  Saint 
Bartholomew's  Day,  249, 
foil.  ;  a  counsellor  of  Henry 
of  Navarre,  253  ;  consulted  by 
English  Reformers,  2bo,  foil.  ; 
sympathises  with  the  Presby- 
terian movement,  266  ;  his 
theology,  268  ;  his  Theological 
Treatises,   269  ;   his   Confessio 


Christiana;  Fidei,  269,  270  ; 
which  is  specially  condemned 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
ib.  ;  his  Stimma  totiiis  Chris- 
tianisnii,  270,  271  ;  his  Qiuts- 
tionum  et  Responsiomini 
Christianarum  Li  be  litis,  271  ; 
his  Catechism,  ib.  ;  he  an- 
swers Joachim  Westphal. 
273  ;  defends  the  French 
martyrs  and  Calvin,  273,  274  ; 
answers  Tilemann  Hesshus, 
274,  275  ;  writes  on  polygamy 
and  divorce  in  answer  to 
Ochino,  279  ;  answers  Claude 
de  Sainctes,  281,  foil.  ;  his 
feelings  toward  the  Lutherans, 
284  ;  he  confers  with  Andrese 
and  others  at  Montbeliard, 
285,  286  ;  completes  transla- 
tion of  psalms  begun  by  Marot, 
293  ;  his  dedication  to  the 
"  Little  Flock,"  294-29S  ; 
translates  scriptural  hymns, 
306  ;  his  life  of  Calvin,  307, 
foil.  ;  not  the  author  of  the 
Hisloire  Eccle'siastiqtie,  310- 
312  ;  his  Icones,  312-314  ;  he 
writes  on  Greek,  Latin,  and 
French  pronunciation,  314 ; 
his  patriotic  preaching,  315- 
320 ;  he  remonstrates  with 
Henry  IV.  on  his  abjuration, 
321;  his  liberality,  325  ;  he 
sells  his  library  to  provide  for 
poor  refugees,  326,  339 ;  de- 
cree against  him  by  Parlia- 
ment annulled  by  Charles  IX. 
under  the  great  seal,  327  ;  he 
is  begged  by  his  father  to  visit 
him  at  Vezelay,  but  is  pre- 
vented by  the  war,  328,  329  ; 
activities  in  old  age,  329  ;  re- 
vises French  Bible,  330 ;  his 
lectures,  331  ;  death  of  his 
first  wife,  332  ;  his  second 
marriage  to  Genevieve  del 
Piano,  333  ;  Francis  of  Sales 
attempts  to  convert  him,  334, 
foil.,  being  encouraged  by  the 


Index 


->  "7  T 


Beza,  Theodore  (Co}itinucd) 
Pope,  335-337  ;  Beza  rejects 
Sales's  bribes,  339  ;  false 
rumours  of  his  conversion  and 
death,  340,  disproved  by  the 
Reformer's  pen,  ih.  ;  his  epi- 
grams, 341  ;  a  portrait  of  him 
in  his  old  age,  342  ;  publicly 
thanks  God  for  the  failure  of 
the  "  Escalade,"  347,  348  ;  his 
death,  October  13,  1605,  350  ; 
notice  of,  351  ;  his  burial, 
352  ;  honours  to  his  memory, 
353 

I^lancherose,  Dr.,  42 

Bourbon,    Antoine   of,    King  of 
Navarre,  Jt't' Navarre 

Bourbon,  Cardinal,  142 

Bourbon,  Catharine  of,  331 

Bourdelot,  Marie,  4 

Brentius,  90 

Bullinger,  93,  257, /<?//.,   267 


Cabrieres,   T19 

Calvin,  John,  i,  2,  ir,  41,  136, 
149,  155,  200,  229,230;  his 
life  by  Beza,  232,  foil.,  268, 
272,  274,  295,  '^oi/foll. 

Caroli,  Pierre,  41 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  266,   267 

Castalio,  or  Chasteillon,  Sebas- 
tian, 55, /<?//, ,    275,280 

Catharine  de*  Medici,  129,  130, 
144, /(?//.,  187,  199,  206,  300, 
302,  311 

Cavallier,  A.,  107 

Cecil,  William,  255 

Chablais,  the  dragonnades  in, 
334 

Chanibre  Ardente,  119 

Chamisso,  51 

Charles  IX.,  126,  158 

Chastillon,  Cardinal  Odet  of, 
1^24,  131 

Chateaubriand,  cruel  Edict  of, 
72,  295 

Christopher,  Duke  of  Wiirtem- 
berg,  85 


Codex  Bcztc,  234 

Codex  Claroi/ioiiianiis,  235 

Coligny,    Admiral    Gaspard   de, 

123,    126,  131,  136,  199,    243, 

246,  249,  foil. 
Conde,  Henry,  Prince  of,  246 
Conde,      Louis       of      Bourbon, 

Prince  of,  112,  126,  199 
Confessio  Christiame  Fidci,  26(), 

270 ;    condemned     by    Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  ib. 
Confession   of   Faith,  confirmed 

and   signed    at    La    Rochelle, 

246 
Controversies   and    controversial 

writings,  268,  foil. 
Corderius,  Mathurin,  56,  105 
Crespin  (Crispinus),    Jean,     35  ; 

writes    the     great     Protestant 

martyrology,  36 


D 


Del    Piano,     Genevieve,     Beza's 

second  wife,   333 
Desnoz,    Claudine,    Beza's    first 

wife,  25,  34,  332 
Diana  of  Poitiers,  300 
Dragonnades  in  Chablais,  334 


E 


Ecclesiastical  Discipline,  247 

Edict  of  Chateaubriand,  72, 
295;  of  "July,"  1561,  132; 
of  "January,"   1562,  201 

Edward  VL,  296,  297 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  127  ;  her  ill- 
will  to  Geneva,  255 

English  Reformation,  1^^,  foil. 

"  Escalade,"  the,  346,  347; 
monument  of,  348 

Espense,  Claude  d',  195 


Farel,  William,  41,  42,  83 
Field,  Mr.,  267 


74 


Index 


Fontainebleau,      Assembly       of 

Notables  at,  no,  122 
Francis  II.,  302 
Frederick,    Duke     of   Wurtem- 

berg,  285 
Froidmont,  Abbot  of,  5,  16,  20 


Gallars,  Nicholas  des,  156,  198 

Geneva,  the  "  Five  of  Geneva," 
70,  74,  note  ;  Academie  or 
University  of,  104;  its  schools, 
105,  106  ;  original  professors, 
107  ;  doctrinal  subscription  of 
students  abandoned,  loS  ; 
theological  instruction  and 
state  of,  244  ;  loyalty  to 
Henry  IV,,  324 

Goppingen,  85 

Greek  New  Testament  edited  by 
Beza,  234 

Grindal,  Bishop  of  London, 
256,  260 

Grynaeus,  333,  341 

Gualter,  Rudolph,  257,  foil., 
267 

Guise,  Duke  of,  143,  225,  226 


H 


Haton,  Claude,  211 

Henry  II.,  73 

Henry  III.  (previously  Duke  of 
Anjou),  158 

Henry  IV.,  Beza  remonstrates 
with  him  on  his  abjuration, 
321,  foil.  J  he  corresponds 
with  Beza,  343,  344  ;  his  inter- 
view with  him,  ib. ;  calls 
him  his  "  father,"    345 

Heretics,  punishment  of,  52, 
foil. 

Hesse,  Philip,  Landgrave  of,  85 

Hotman,  Fran9ois,  84,  113 


Icones,  the  gallery  of  portraits 
of  learned  and  pious  men,  by 
Beza,  312-314 


J 


"  January,"  Edict  of,  201 
Jarnac,  battle  of,  243 
Jewel,  Bishop  John,  255 
"  July  "  Edict  of,  132 
Juvenilia,  the,  27-31,  46,  47 

K 

Knox,  John,  255 
L 

Laborie,  Antoine,  70 

Lainez,  197 

La  Rochelle,  Synod  of,  245,  foil. 

La  Roche  sur  Yon,  Prince,  125 

Lausanne,  39  ;  colloquy  at,  be- 
tween Roman  Catholics  and 
Reformers,  40-43  ;  iconoclasm 
and  pillage  in  cathedral  of, 
44 ;  Academie  or  University 
of,  45  ;  Beza  becomes  a  pro- 
fessor, 46  ;  the  "  Five  Scholars 
of  Lausanne,"  71,  foil.  ;  Beza 
leaves  Lausanne,  loi,  102 

Lect,  Jacques,  333 

Le  Peintre,  Claude,  35 

L'Espine,  Jean  de,  198 

L'Hospital,  Chancellor  Michel 
de,  141,  158-160 

Longueville,  Duke  of,  125 

Lord's  Supper,  Controversies  re- 
specting, 272, /<?//.,  281, /<?//. 

Lorraine,  Cardinal  Charles,  of, 
134,  144,  foil.  ;  replies  to 
Beza,  192,  foil.,  282 

Luther,  Martin,  i,  2 


M 


Maimbourg,  Louis,  37 
Marbach,  90 
Margaret  of  Valois,  158 
Marlorat,  Augustin,  156,  198 
Marot,  Clement,   translates  part 
of  the  psalms,  288,  foil.  ;   liis 
"  Letter     to     the     Ladies    of 
France,"  291,  292,  313,  314 


Index 


375 


Martyr,  Peter  (Vermigli),  196- 
198 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,   302 

May,  Thibaudde,  assumed  name 
of  Beza,  33 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  i,  2,  90 

Mercier,  a  Vaudois,  saves  Ge- 
neva, 347 

Merindol,   iig 

Merlin,  John  Raymond,  156 

Michodus,  J.,  41 

Mildmay,  Sir  Thomas,  325 

Moncontour,  battle  of,  243 

Montbeliard,  84  ;  conference  at, 
285,  286 

Montfaucon,  Bishop  of  Lau- 
sanne, 40 

Montgomery,  Count,  120 


N 


Nassau,  Count  Louis  of,  246 
Navarre,    Antoine    of   Bourbon, 

King  of ,  110,  foil.  ;   125,  158, 

206,  foil. 
Navarre,    Henry   of,   246,    253  ; 

see  Henry  IV. 
Navarre,         Jeanne       d'Albret, 

Queen  of,  iii,  n^,  foil.,  158, 

212 


Nerac,  no,  foil. 


O 


Ochino,  Bernardino,  11^,  foil. 
Olivetanus,  Robert,  330 
Otto,   Henry,    Elector   Palatine, 
85 

P 

Paris,   Archbishop    of,    specially 
condemns      Beza's      Confessio 
Christiance  Fidei,  270 
Parkhurst,    Bishop,  ,257 
Pasquier,  President  Etienne,  28, 

49,  50 
Passy,  Seigneur   de,  see   Spifame 
Peucer,  Gaspard,  329 
Poissy,    Colloquy    of,    134,    157, 

foil. 


Poltrot,  226 

Predestination,  272 

Presbyterian  movement  in  Eng- 
land, Beza's  sympathy  with, 
266 

Psalms,  the  Huguenot,  287,  foil.  ; 
translation  completed,  299  ;  in 
favour  at  court  of  Francis  L, 
299,  300 ;  laws  against,  300 ; 
sung  on  the  Pre'  aux  Clercs, 
301  ;  their  singing  advocated 
by  Montluc,  Bishop  of  Va- 
lence, 301,  302  ;  Beza  obtains 
a  right  to  print  them,  303  ; 
great  number  of  editions,  ib.  ; 
their  influence  on  spread  of 
Protestantism,  304 


R 


Raemond,  Florimond  de,  37  ;  on 
psalm-singing,  304,  305  ;  ac- 
count of  a  visit  to  Beza,  342, 
343 

S 

Sainctes,  Claude  de,  194,  230, 
281,  282 

Saint  Augustine,  191 

Saint  Bartholomew's  Day,  Mas- 
sacre of,  248,  foil.  ;  refugees 
of,  at  Geneva,  250 

Sainte-Catherine,    fort    of,    344, 

345 
Saint    Germain    en    Laye,     140, 

foil.  ;  conference  at,  202 
Saint  Paul,  Francois  de,  156 
Saint  Quentin,  battle  of,  88,  89 
Sales,    Francis   of,    attempts   to 

convert  Beza,  334,  foil.  ;  how 

he  "converts"  the  district  of 

Chablais,  ib. 
Sandys,  Bishop,  260,  267 
Santa  Croce,   Cardinal,  128,  211 
Savoy,  the  Duke  of,  tries  to  take 

Geneva  by  an    escalade,    346, 

foil. 
Sayous,  A.,  50,  316 
Schlosser,  F.  C,  321 
Sequin,  Bernard,  72 


?>7^ 


Index 


Servetus,  Michael,  53 

Spifame,  Jacques  Paul,  Bishop 
of  Nevers,  becomes  a  Protest- 
ant minister,  241  ;  executed  at 
Geneva  for  adultery,  242,  243 

Strassburg,  84 

Sulzer,  Simon,  83 

Suinma  totius  Chrisiianisnii, 
270,  271 

Suriano,  Venetian  ambassador, 
I2g 

Swiss  envoys  at  French  court,  86 

Synod  of  La  Rochelle,  2^1  ^  foil. 


Tagaut,  J.,  107 

Tournon,     Cardinal,      74,      158, 

160,  186,  187,  ig3 
Tractationes   Theologicce,  269 


Vassy,  Massacre  of,  204,  foil. 

Vaud,  the  Pays  de,  conquered 
by  the  Bernese,  39  ;  Reforma- 
tion introduced  in,  40 


Vaudois,   or   Waldenses,    perse- 
cuted,  80,  foil.  ;  intercessions 
in  their  behalf,  82,  foil. 
Vestments,  Beza  upon,  265 
Vezelay,  Beza's  birthplace.    Sec- 
ond   Crusade   preached   at,  3, 

4  ;.329 
Vigilius,  191 
Viret,  Pierre,  39,  41,  72,  73,  97, 

foil.  ,102 
Vogt,  Simpert,  S3 

W 

Waldenses,  see  Vaudois 
Westphal,  Joachim,  273 
Wilcox,  Mr.,  267 
Wingle,  Paul  de,  330 
Withers,  George,  259 
Wolmar,  Melchior,  7,  308 
Wiirtemberg,  Duke    Christopher 
of,  85;  Duke  Frederick  of,  2S5 


Zastrisell,  G.  S.  of,  326,  note 


Heroes  of  the  Reformation. 


EDITED    BY 


SAMUEL  MACAULEY  JACKSON, 

Professor  of  Church  History,   New  York   University. 


Fully  illustrated.   Each  12%  cloth,  6/- 


A  Series  of  biographies  of  the  leaders  in  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation, 

The  literary  skill  and  the  standing  as  scholars  of  the 
writers  who  have  agreed  to  prepare  these  biographies 
will,  it  is  believed,  ensure  for  them  a  wide  acceptance  on 
the  part  not  only  of  special  students  of  the  period  but  of 
the  general  reader.  Full  use  will  be  made  in  them  of  the 
correspondence  of  their  several  subjects  and  of  any  other 
autobiographical  material  that  may  be  available.  The 
general  reader  will  be  pleased  to  find  all  these  citations 
translated  into  English  and  the  scholar  to  find  them 
referred  specifically  to  their  source.  The  value  of  these 
volumes  will  be  furthered  by  comprehensive  literary  and 
historical  references  and  adequate  indexes. 

It  is,  of  course,  the  case  that  each  one  of  the  great 
teachers  whose  career  is  to  be  presented  in  this  series 
looked  at  religious  truth  and  at  the  problems  of  Chris- 
tianity from  a  somewhat  different  point  of  view.  On  this 
ground  an  important  feature  in  each  volume  of  the  series 
will  be  a  precise  and  comprehensive  statement,  given  as 
nearly  as  practicable  in  the  language  of  the  original 
writer,  of  the  essential  points  in  his  theology. 

It  is  planned  that  the  narratives  shall  be  not  mere 
eulogies,  but  critical  biographies  ;  and  the  defects  of 
judgment  or  sins  of  omission  or  commission  on  the  parts 
of  the  subjects  will  not  be  passed  by  or  extenuated.  On 
the  other  hand  they  will  do  full  justice  to  the  nobility  of 
character  and  to  the  distinctive  contribution  to  human 
progress  made  by  each  one  of  these  great  Protestant 
leaders  of  the  Reformation  period.  The  series  will  avoid 
the  partisanship  of  writers  like  Merle  d'Aubigne,  and,  in 
the  opposite  direction,  of  the  group  of  which  Johannes 
Janssen  may  be  taken  as  a  tyi)e. 


HEROES  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

I.— Martin  Luther  (1483-1546).     The  Hero  of  the  Refor- 

MATION.     By  Henry  Eyster  Jacobs,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Thiel 
College,  1877,  and  iSgi,  respectively)  ;  Professor  of  Sys- 
tematic Theology,  Evangelical  Lutheran  Seminary.  Phila- 
delphia,   Pa.  ;    author  of    "  The  Lutheran  Movement  in 
England  during  the  Reigns  of  Henry  VI IL  and  Edward 
VI.,  and  its  Literary  Monuments."     With  73  illustrations, 
12°,  6/-. 
XI.— Philip  Melanchthon    (1497-1560).      The   Protestant 
Preceptor   of   Germany,      By  James  William  Richard, 
D.D.  (Pennsylvania  College,   1886)  ;    Professor  of   Homi- 
letics,   Lutheran   Theological   Seminary,    Gettysburg,    Pft. 
With  35  illustrations.      12",  6/-. 

Til. — Desiderius  Erasmus  (1467-1536).  The  Humanist  in 
THE  Service  of  the  Reformation.  By  Ephraim  Emer- 
ton,  Ph.D.  (Leipzig  University,  1S76)  ;  Professor  of  Eccle- 
siastical History,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass.  ; 
author  of  "The  Midille  Ages  (375-1.300)."  With  3^)  il- 
lustrations.    12",  6/-. 

IV. — Theodore  Beza  (15 19-1605).  The  Counsellor  of  the 
French  Reformation.  By  Henry  Martyn  Baird,  Ph.D. 
(College  of  New  Jersey,  1867);  D.D.  (Rutgers  College, 
1877);  LL.D.  (College  of  New  Jersey,  1882);  L.H.D. 
(Princeton  University,  1896)  ;  Professor  of  the  Greek 
Language  and  Literature,  New  York  University  ;  author 
of  "  The  Huguenots,"  6  vols.     12°,  6/- 

The  following  are  in  preparation  : — 

V. — Huldreich  Zwingli  (1484-1531).  The  Reformer  of 
German  Switzerland.  By  Samuel  Macauley  Jackson, 
LL.D.  (Washington  and  Lee  University,  i8g-')  ;  J)  D. 
(New  York  University,  1893)  ;  Professor  of  Church  His- 
tory, New  York  University.  Editor  of  the  Series. 
VI. — ^John  Calvin  (1509-1564).  The  Founder  of  Reformed 
Protestantism.  By  Williston  Walker,  Ph.D.  (Leipzig 
Univer.sity,  188S);  D.D.  (.\delbert  College,  1S94,  Amiierst 
College,  1895) ;  Professor  of  Germanic  and  Western  Church 
History,  Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn.  ;  author 
of  "  The  Creeds  and  Platforms  of  Congregationalism." 
VIL— John  Knox  (1505-15 72).  The  Hero  of  the  Scotch 
Reformation.  By  Henry  Cowan,  D.D.,  (Aberdeen, 
1888),  Professor  of  Church  History,  the  University  of 
Aberdeen,  Scotland  ;  author  of  "  Landmarks  of  Church 
History,"  "The  Influence  of  the  Scottish  Church  upon 
Christendom." 
VHL— Thomas  Cranmer  (1489-1556).  The  English  Re- 
Foiv'MKR.     (Author  will  be  announced  later.) 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New   York  and  London 


U4    in 


Th,.i...ca  s.«;.j-»V,, hK,'!, 


1    1012  01095  3125 


DATE  DUE 

JW^' 

■' 

OIBIiMW^ 

-imm 

CAYLORD 

^ 


i  I 


